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THE STORY OF THE NATIONS 



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THE STORY 

OF 

The City of New York 



BY 



CHARLES BURR TODD 

AU'IHOk Oh " LIfE AND LE7TERS OF JOEL BAKLOW 



iLL.s,„A,K,> JUN 18 1895 



i^zionT 



" The harvest of the river is her revenue and she is a mart of nations." 
" The crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the 
honorable of the earth," -Isaiah xxiii, 3, 8. 



NEW YORK & LONDON 

G . P . ? U 1' N A M ' S SONS 

K^t '^nicKerbochei '^nas 

1890. 

V 



COPYRIGHT BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 






Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



TO 

THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE 

CITY OF NEW YORK 

THIS VOLUME ' 

IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY 

THEIR FRIEND, THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 



In writing the story of New York, it has been the 
author's purpose to present a brief but comprehen- 
sive survey of the causes which led to the founding 
of the city, and of the various agencies which con- 
tributed to its marvellous growth, and to combine 
with this a narrative of such domestic details and 
romantic or picturesque incidents as would serve to 
render the picture clear and complete. The author 
hopes that his volume, while planned more particu- 
larly for the requirements of younger readers, may be 
found of service to citizens of all ages who may wish 
to inform themselves concerning the chief events in 
the history of the great city of the New World, and 
who may not find time for larger and more elaborate 
histories. It is startling to think that in twenty-five 
years, if the present rate of increase is continued, 
New York, with her history of two hundred and 
fifty years, will surpass London, with a life-time of 
twenty centuries, and will become the capital of 
the world — that is, in wealth and population. The 
onward rush of material forces will give her this 
vantage ; but whether she becomes the capital in a 



vi PREFA CE. 

larger sense — in art, letters, science, and moral influ- 
ence, in great museums and universities of art, in free 
libraries for the people, and storehouses of learning for 
the scholar, in that literary and artistic atmosphere 
which attracts the author, poet, and painter, and de- 
velops the best that is in them, — this possibility rests 
largely with the young people of to-day, who, for the 
next fifty years, will shape her destinies. Manifestly 
they will work with greater interest toward this end, 
if they know that their city has a noble and dignified 
history, that, notwithstanding grave drawbacks and 
difficulties, her progress has been such as to chal- 
lenge the wonder of students of social science the 
world over, and that her future is so full of possibili- 
ties that no man can hope to forecast it. This re- 
sult the author has also had in view. 

Some details have been unavoidably omitted — an 
omission supplied in part by the chronological record 
in the Appendix. In treating of the modern period, 
the writer has adopted the view of most scholars, that 
histor}^ ceases fifty years back of the present time 
— contemporary record taking its place,— and has 
treated of the modern period only so far as seemed 
necessary to the completeness of the narrative. 

It would be impossible to name here the numer- 
ous authorities consulted. The author has, however, 
derived special benefit from the labors of such origi- 
nal investigators as Messrs. Brodhead, O'Callaghan, 
and Valentine. From the " Corporation Manual," 
compiled by the last-named gentleman, many of the 
illustrations, as well as many curious facts, have been 
taken. He is also indebted to the various histories 



PREFACE. VI 1 

of the city— by Miss Mary L. Booth, David T. Val- 
entine, Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, Colonel William L. 
Stone, and Benson J. Lossing, — and to the scrap- 
books and files of old papers in the Astor and 
Society libraries. Acknowledgment is also due 
Mr. George H. Putnam for his encouragement and 
co-operation. 

New York, January i, 1888. 




CONTENTS. 



Introduction ^ ^5 

New York Bay discovered by Verrazano, 2— By Henry 
Hudson, 5— The Dutch, their country, customs, and laws, 
6— The long-sought northwest passage, 7— The Half 
Moon in the Hudson, 8— The West India Company and its 
chambers, 12 — The first director, 15. 



PART I. 
THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 



Peter Minuit 19 39 

Manhattan Island in 1626, 19— Its purchase from the In- 
dians, 20— Appearance, dress, manners, and customs of the 
latter, 24— The beginning of New Netherlands, 26— De 
Rasieres' embassy to Plymouth, 30^Its happy result, 32— 
The patroons and their purchases, 34. 



II. 

WouTER Van Twiller ..... 40-5° 

Knickerbocker's description of, 40— His warlike measures, 
43— Drives the English from the Hudson^ 45— Plants a 
fort on the Connecticut, 46— His authority contemned by 
the English, 47— His recall, 50. 

ix 



CONTENTS. 



III. 



WiLHELM KlEFT S^~^2) 

His testiness, 51 — Despotic powers, 52 — Truculent mes- 
sage to Minuit, 57 — Sets a price on the heads of the Rari- 
tans, 58 — Proposes no more meetings, 60 — His cruelty, 61 
— His recall, 62. 

IV. 

Petrus Stuyvesant 64-92 

Soldier and Autocrat, 65 — Trials of the councillors, 67 — 
Courtly journey to Hartford, 69 — Visit to the West Indies, 
73 — Attacks the Swedes, 74 — Corrects Quakers and Ana- 
baptists, 77 — Attacked by the English, 83 — Surrenders his 
fort, 89. 

V. 

Social and Domestic Life .... 93-128 

The pastor's letter, 93 — A walk through New Amsterdam, 
95 — The city wall, 96 — The water front, 98 — A Dutch 
tavern, 103 — The old koeck, 108 ; and trumpeter, 109 — 
The Battery in 1663, 11 1 — The church-goers, 113 — Fulton 
Ferry under the Dutch, 115 — The burgomaster's court, 
117 — Shopping, 123 — Dutch houses, 124 — Social amuse- 
ments, 124. 

PART II. 
ENGLISH RULE. 

VI. 
The New Flag 131-145 

Twenty royal governors, 132 — Colonel Nicolls' reign, 133 
— Colonel Richard Lovelace, 136 — New York captured by 
the Dutch, 138 ; restored, 138 — Andros appointed gov- 
ernor, 138 — Governor Thomas Dongan, 141 — The first 
colonial Assembly, 141 — New York under James II., 143 
— Accession of William and Mary, 145. 



CONTENTS. XI 

VII. 

PAGE 

Rebellion ....... 146-167 

The two parties, 147 — Leisler usurps the government, 150 
— Governor Sloughter arrives, i6i — Leisler's arrest, 162 ; 
Trial, 163 ; Execution, 166. 

VIII. 

The Romantic Age 168-179 

Pirates and Red Sea men, 168 — Fate of the Prophet Daniel, 
172 — Some of the freebooters, 174 — Captain Kidd and his 
fortunes, 176 — Arrival of Lord Bellomont, 179. 

IX. 
The Earlier Churches of New York . 180-185 

Garden Street Church, 180 — Trinity, 182 — Huguenot, 184 
— Presbyterian, 185 — Baptist, 185 — Methodist, 185. 

X. 

Lord Bellomont's Stormy Reign . . 186-189 

Espouses cause of Leislerites, 1S6 — Seeks to abrogate land 
grants, 187 — In Boston, and captures Captain Kidd, 188 — 
Death, 188. 

XI. 

Middle Colonial Period . . . 190-199 

Various events, 190 — Arrival of the Palatines, 191 — Upris- 
ing of slaves, 191 — The first newspaper, and a new char- 
ter, 192 — Trial of Zenger, 194 — First Merchants' Exchange, 
196 — Founding of King's College, 198. 

XII. 
The People during the Colonial Period, 200-257 

The Rev. James Wooley describes New York, 200 — The 
Labadists describe Mr. Wooley, 204 — Dress, 207 — A Walk 
through New York, 1730-65, 211 — The governor and Gov- 
ernment House, 213 — Fete-day ceremonies, 215 — Furni- 



XI i CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ture, 219 — The old City Hall, 221 — Corporation dinners, 
223 — The privateers, 225 — Shopping in 1745, 229 — Quaint 
craftsmen, 232 — Burial customs, 234 — Street signs, 236 — 
Coffee-houses and taverns, 237 — Fire companies, 240 — 
Slaves, 242 — Colonial court scene, 245 — Plays and other 
amusements, 250 — Horse - racing, 253 — Dancing, 254 — 
Shooting-matches, 256 — Snuff-taking, 256. 

XIII. 
The Heroic Age 258-282 

The Stamp Act, 258 — The British Constitution, 259 — Re- 
sistance, 260 — The American Aventine, 265 — The tri- 
bunes, 265 — The praetors, 266 — The last day of liberty, 
268 — Stamp-Act day, 270 — The liberty poles, 273 — The 
first bloodshed, 275 — New York's tea-party, 279. 

XIV. 

War 283-301 

Trail Bissel's message, 283 — Welcoming Hancock and 
Adams, 287 — Washington's arrival, 289 — The capture of 
the arms, 291 — Fortifying New York, 293 — The patriot 
army transferred, 294 — Tory rides, 295 — Reading the 
Declaration of Independence, 296 — The enemy's fleet, 
297 — The Hessian contingent, 300. 

XV. 
Two Battles 302-333 

Where would the enemy strike ? 302 — The city defences, 
304 — Its defenders, 307 — The opposing force, 309— The 
prelude, 310— The attack, 317— At Battle Hill, 318— Stir- 
ling routed, 319— The retreat, 321 — The city evacuated, 
323 — The British attack, 323 — A panic, 325 — Major Burr's 
gallant act, 327 — Battle of Harlem Heights, 328. 

XVI. 
New York in Captivity . . . 334-348 

The great fire of 1776, 334 — Nathan Hale executed, 338 
— British prisons, 339 — New York evacuated, 344 — Ameri- 
can loyalists, 346 — The final parting, 346. 



CONTENTS, xiii 

XVII. 



PAGE 



Constitution Making .... 349-368 

The Philadelphia Convention, 350 — The Constitution 
adopted, 352 — Ratified by New York, 354 — The Federal 
procession, 355 — Federal Hall, 361 — The first Congress 
meets, 363 — Washington inaugurated, 365. 



PART III. 
THE FREE CITY. 

XVHI. 
The First Twenty Years . . . 371-390 

Court life, 371 — Philadelphia, the capital, 375 — Two par- 
ties, 376 — Their struggle for power, 377 — The result, 382 
— Early newspapers, 383 — Duel between Burr and Hamil- 
ton, 386 — Hamilton's death, 388 — Funeral ceremonies, 388. 

XIX. 
A Typical New York Merchant . . 391-400 

John Jacob Astor : birth, 391 — Emigrates to America, 391 
— Engages in the fur trade, 392 — Founds the American 
Fur Company, 394 ; and the Pacific Fur Company, 396 — 
Builds Astoria, 396 — Death, 400. 

XX. 

Commercial Development .. . , 401-419 

The three genii, 401 — Fulton and his steamboats, 402 — 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, 406 — Erie Canal, 408 — The first tele- 
graph, 411 — Earliest railroads, 418. 

XXI. 

Ships and Sailors 420-430 

The packet service, 420 — The clipper ships, 422 — Their 
exploits, 425. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

XXII. 



PAGE 



Minor Events, 1784-1860 .... 431-444 

King's College re-chartered as Columbia, 431 — New York 
Historical Society founded, 435 — Academy of Fine Arts, 
incorporated, 433 — Knickerbocker publishes his ' ' History of 
New York," 434 — City Hall built, 434 — Victories of war of 
1 8 12, 436 — The city's progress, 438 — An old man's remi- 
niscences, 439 — New York in 1825, 439 — Lafayette's visit, 
442. 

XXIII. 
New York in the Civil War . . . 445-451 

Major Wood's project of an independent city, 446 — The 
uprising, 447 — Union Defence Committee organized, 448 — 
Sanitary Commission, 449 — Christian Commission, 449 — 
Draft riots, 450 — Obsequies of Abraham Lincoln, 451. 

XXIV. 

The Mouse in the Cheese . . . 452-458 

Formation of the Tweed Ring, 453 — Its thefts, 454 — De- 
tection and disruption, 454 — Tweed's imprisonment and 
death, 456 — The moral of it, 456. 

XXV. 

The Triumphs of Art .... 459-464 

The Brooklyn Bridge, 459 — Opening ceremonies, 460 — 
Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, 462. 



APPENDIX A. 

Mayors of New York since the Revolution, 465. 

APPENDIX B. 

Notable and curious events in the history of New York, 
chronologically arranged, 466 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 

5 



Manhattan Island before the Dutch 

Dutch Vessel, 1609 .... 

Manhattan Island before the Dutch 

The Earliest Map of the City 

The Fort in Kieft's Day . 

The Stadt Huys, 1642 

New York under Stuyvesant 

Stuyvesant's House 

Block-House and City Gate 

River and Dock Front 

Broad Street, 1663 

The Battiry in 1663 . 

De Peyster Punch-Bowl 

Seal of New Netherland, 1623 to 1664 

Map of the City in Governor Fletcher's Time 

Merchants' Exchange, 1827 

King's College 

Fulton Ferry, 1746 

A Plan of the City of New York, 1763 . . . Face 

View of City from the North — Middle Colonial Period, 

View of City and Harbor — Middle Colonial Period 

Federal Hall 

Firemen's Certificate of Membership about the 

Year 1800 Face 

John Jay . . . 

The Battery and Bowling Green during the Revolution, 
Autograph Letter of Israel Putnam . . . Face 
Roger Morris' House (the Jumel Mansion) 
Trinity Church after the Great Fire .... 



25 
50 
63 
71 
79 
91 
95 
97 

lOI 

III 

125 
127 
177 
195 
197 
209 
211 
213 

215 
221 

242 
267 
305 
314 
329 
335 



XV 



xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Old Sugar-House Prison 339 

Autograph Permit of George Washington . . . 343 

Fraunces' Tavern 347 

The Inauguration of Washington 367 

Aaron Burr 379 

Edward Livingston 381 

" The Grange," Hamilton's Home, 1804 .... 387 

Alexander Hamilton . 389 

John Jacob Astor 399 

Robert Fulton 402 

The " Clermont " . . . . . . . . 403 

Commodore Vanderbilt 407 

De Witt Clinton 409 

Autographs of Invited Guests, Erie Canal Celebra- 
tion Face 412 

Broadway, Park Theatre, and City Hall . . .417 

The " Dreadnought " 423 

South Street in the Clipper Period ..... 429 

Penny Currency — 1790 432 

Washington Irving 433 

Present City Hall 435 

Plan of the City of New York about 1804 . . Face 438 

Broadway Stages " 440 

William Paulding 443 

Brooklyn Bridge . . ...... 461 

Statue of Liberty , 463 



■^S^ 




THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The year 1524 was a very good year to have been 
born in. Men in one corner of the world, at least, 
were waking up. Kings were learning that mer- 
chants and navigators had their value as well as men- 
at-arms. Thirty-two years before, Columbus had dis- 
covered America. Twenty-seven years before, De 
Gama had opened up the passage to India around the 
Cape of Good Hope, and had given the merchants of 
Spain and Portugal the treasures of India ; and five 
years before, Magellan had rounded Cape Horn, and 
triumphantly circumnavigated the globe. Just now 
the strife among navigators was for the discovery of 
a shorter passage to India, either around the. frozen 
pole or through newly found America. One of the 
great captains who aspired to make this discovery 
was Jean Verrazano, a native of Florence, but who 
easily found in Francis I., King of France, a patron 
willing to commission and despatch him on such an 
errand. Verrazano left France late in the year 1523 



2 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

with two ships— the Norman and the DolpJiin, — but 
was forced by a terrible storm "to land in Bitaine " 
and repair his ships. His account of the voyage 
that followed, given in his quaint " Relation," brings 
back the soft-toned atmosphere of the age. 

'' Afterwards," he says, " with the Dolphin alone we de- 
termined to make discoverie of new countries, to prose- 
cute the navigation we had already begun. . . . The 
17th of January, the yeere 1524, by the grace of God, we 
departed from the dishabited rock by the isle of Madeira, 
apperteining to the king of Portugal, with 50 men, with 
victuals, weapons, and other ship munition very well pro- 
vided, and furnished for eight months. And saihng 
westward with a faire easterly wind in 25 dayes we ran 
500 leagues, and the 20 of Februarie we were overtaken 
with as sharp and terrible a tempest as ever any sailors 
suffered, whereof with the divine helpe and mercifull as- 
sistance of Almighty God, and the goodnesse of our 
shippe, accompanied with the good happe of her fortu- 
nate name, we were delivered, and with a prosperous 
winde followed our course west and by north, and in 
other 25 days we made about 450 leagues more, when we 
discovered a new land never before seen of any man 
either ancient or modern." 

This new land was probably the Jersey shore. 
Verrazano first sailed southward in quest of a har- 
bor ; but finding none, he returned and coasted 
north until he found " a very pleasant place sit- 
uated among certaine little, steepe hills ; from 
amidst the which hills there ranne downe to the sea 
an exceeding great streme of water which within 
the mouth was very deepe, and from the sea to the 



INTRODUCTORY. 3 

mouth of the same with the tide, which we found to 
rise 8 foote, any greate ship laden may passe up. 
But because we rode at anker in a place well fenced 
from the wind we would not venture ourselves with- 
out knowledge of the place, and we passed up with 
one boate onely into the sayd river and saw the coun- 
try very well peopled." This bay in which the 
Dolphin rode "fenced in from the wind," most geog- 
raphers agree was the bay of New York, and the 
" exceeding great streme of water " between the hills 
must have been the Hudson itself. Verrazano was, 
therefore, the first European to discover and sail 
into the bay of New York. Without doubt his first 
act on going ashore was to take possession of the 
country in the name of his royal master in the beau- 
tiful and dramatic fashion pecu'iar to explorers of 
the Latin race. Landing with the pomp and display 
of arms, he planted first a large wooden cross in the 
ground, and near it a cedar post bearing a metal 
plate on which was engraven the royal arms of France. 
Then standing beside the cross, with head bared 
and his men-at-arms grouped about him, he repeated 
these words : 

" In the name of the most high, mighty, and redoutable 
monarch, Francis, first of that name, most Christian king 
of France and Navarre, I take possession of this island, 
as also of the bay, river, and all countries, rivers, lakes, 
and streams contiguous and adjacent thereunto, both 
those which have been discovered, and those which may 
be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, 
bounded on one side by the seas of the north and west, 
and on the other by the south sea ; declaring to the 



4 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

nations thereof that from this time forever, they are vas- 
sals of His Majesty, bound to obey his laws and to follow 
his customs, promising them on his part all succor and 
protection against the invasion and incursion of their 
enemies ; declaring to all other potentates, princes, sov- 
ereigns, states, and republics, to them and their subjects, 
that they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any 
parts of the aforesaid country, save only under the good 
pleasure of His Most Christian Majesty, and of him who 
shall govern in his stead, and that on pain of incurring 
his displeasure and the effort of his arms." 

Having thus imparted to our island this pleasant 
touch of mediaeval romance and chivalry, Verrazano 
sailed away to France, where, at Dieppe, he wrote a 
*^ Relation " of his discoveries, as has been remarked. 
The French king, however, made no attempt to set- 
tle his new territories, his attention that year being 
fully absorbed by his campaign against the Spanish 
Emperor Charles V.; a campaign which ended in the 
defeat of Francis at Pavia, and in his being carried 
off to Spain a prisoner. 

For nearly one hundred years the island retained 
its primeval wildness and beauty ; vessels passed by 
in the distance, — discoverers, fishermen, traders, 
pirates — but none came into the bay, or if they did 
they left no traces of their presence. At length, 
however, on a September day in 1609, a ship sailed 
in — a craft of moment. She was, indeed, an odd- 
looking vessel, with carved prow, a stern much 
higher than her bows, and carrying square sails on 
the two masts of a schooner. She flew a banner 
new among nations — the Dutch flag: orange, white, 



INTRODUCTORY. 



5 



and blue, in three horizontal stripes, — and she was in 
fact a Dutch craft, '' the Texalina vessel," called the 
Half Moon. I cannot clearly explain her presence 
here without speaking somewhat at length of the 
people to whom she belonged. These people were 
called the Dutch. Their country lay along the 




DUTCH VESSEL, 1609. 

southern shore of the North Sea, and was called in- 
discriminately the Netherlands, the United Prov- 
inces, and the Low Countries. It was so very flat 
and low that the quaint writers of the day described 
it as "a bridge of swimming earth," and the people 
as ** living lower than the fishes, in the very lap of the 



6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

floods." The Dutch were of an ancient civilization. 
Originally formed of various rude tribes, the Frisians, 
Batavi, and Belgae, of whom Caesar speaks, and later 
mingled with the conquering Franks and Saxons, 
they grew to wealth and power under the successive 
rule of the great Charlemagne, of the lords and 
bishops of the feudal age, and of the dukes and 
kings of the house of Burgundy. In 1550, we read, 
under Charles V. they had 208 walled cities, 150 
chartered towns, 6,300 villages, and 60 fortresses. 
The Netherlands were Protestant in religious faith 
— disciples of Calvin of Geneva. This did not 
please Catholic Spain, to which country they were 
subject, and she so bitterly persecuted them that 
seven provinces revolted, and formed themselves into 
a republic. Another terrible war followed this act, 
which had been closed six months before the Half 
Moon sailed into New York Bay, by both parties 
agreeing to a truce for twelve years. You will find 
the whole story graphically told in Mr. Motley's 
" Rise of the Dutch Republic." I will speak briefly 
of the political divisions of the state into which the 
seven provinces had been welded. 

Its government was republican in form, though 
much more complex and unwieldy than is our own 
beautiful system. Four great bureaus or departments 
managed its affairs — the States General, the Council 
of State, the College of the Admiralty, and the 
Chamber of Accounts. The States-General was the 
principal bureau, and will be most frequently referred 
to in our pages. This chamber was usually com- 
posed of twelve deputies from the various provinces, 



INTRODUCTORY. f 

and its powers more nearly approached those of the 
president of modern republics. It was the execu- 
tive body of the system. The genius of the Neth- 
erlands was almost purely commercial. It was a 
nation of great merchants, not of shop-keepers, as 
Napoleon later styled the English. It had at the 
time of which we write three thousand ships, one 
hundred thousand sailors, and a trade of sixteen 
millions per annum, against England's six millions. 
Old Peter Heylin tells us that at Amsterdam in 
1623, at one tide, one thousand ships were seen to 
go out and in, and that though scarce a stick of ship 
timber grew on their soil, yet they supplied the world 
with ships. Its great mercantile corporation — the 
privileged East India Company, chartered after the 
rupture with Spain to secure the rich trade of India 
and the East which Spain and Portugal had so long 
enjoyed, was now the wealthiest and most powerful 
association of merchants on the globe. The 
Dutch Company had, however, a rival in the Eng- 
lish East India Company, chartered in 1600, and 
which, though not then so strong, eventually out- 
stripped it. 

Both companies were eager rivals in the discovery 
of a shorter passage to India than that by the Cape 
of Good Hope around Africa. The Dutch com- 
pany believed that such a passage existed through 
the " Frozen Ocean behind Norway," that is, around 
the northern shores of Europe and Asia, and 
in 1608 had fitted out the Half Moon, and given her 
in charge of the famous English navigator, Henry 
Hudson, with orders to sail by the way of Nova 



8 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Zembla and the Straits of Arian in search of this 
passage. Hudson sailed into those frozen seas until 
his path was blocked by ice, and then returned, and 
began coasting southward along the shore of America^ 
searching for a passage through the continent. He 
reached Virginia without discovering this passage, 
and then turned and sailed back by the way he had 
come, examining the shores more closely than he 
had previously done. In this way, on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1609, he discovered, and the next day en- 
tered, the beautiful bay of New York. Hudson no 
doubt believed that the long-sought passage to India 
was found, and after resting for several days, and 
exploring the neighboring shores, he made sail and 
continued on up the river where keel of white man 
had never before ventured. The freshening water 
and shoaling channel must soon have convinced him 
that he was in no strait, but a river, a sad disap- 
pointment no doubt to the enterprising, ambitious 
sailor ; nevertheless, with a resolution that increases 
our respect for him, he decided to press on and ex- 
plore the mighty stream. He was nine days ascend- 
ing to the present site of the city of Albany, sailing 
only by day. Some nights the Half Moon cast an- 
chor under the frowning mountains. At other times 
she was so enshrouded in spectral mists that the 
mariners could see nothing except what fancy pic- 
tured for them. 

Often they stopped to trade with the Indians, 
sometimes going on shore for the purpose. One of 
these occasions is thus quaintly described by Cap- 
tain Hudson in his narrative of the voyage. 



IN TROD UC TORY. g 

" I went ashore in one of their canoes with an old man 
who was chief of forty men and women, whom I found 
in a house made of the bark of trees, and was exceed- 
ing smooth and well finished within, and all round 
about. I found there a great quantity of Indian corn 
and beans, and indeed there lay to dry, near the house, 
of those articles, as much as would load three ships, be- 
side what was still growing in the fields. When we went 
to the house two mats were spread to sit on, and immedi- 
ately eatables were brought to us in wooden bowls well 
made, and two men were sent off with their bows and 
arrows to kill wild fowl, who soon returned with two 
pigeons. They also killed immediately a fat dog, and in 
a little time skinned it with shells they got out of the 
water." 

The natives also brought to barter for trinkets, 
skins and furs, pumpkins, squashes, grapes, and 
apples. When the Half Moon had reached nearly to 
the present site of Albany, the channel became so 
shallow that she could go no farther, and the ship's 
boat was sent some twenty miles farther on until it 
reached the head of navigation. When it reported 
this fact Hudson made preparations to return, and 
on the third of October, after a voyage of ten days, 
ancjiored in the bay of New York, having beaten 
off a party of hostile Indians, on the ninth day of 
the return, and killed several warriors. On this 
voyage Hudson first acquainted the Indians with 
the taste of rum, which they at once named, from its 
most prominent quality, '' fire water." At the same 
time far north on the banks of Lake Iroquois, 
Champlain was giving the same race its first lesson 
in the use of gunpowder. 



lO THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

On the fourth of October, 1609, the Half Moon 
" went out of the mouth of the great river," and 
set sail for Europe. Instead of continuing on to 
Holland, however, Hudson put into the port of 
Dartmouth, England, where he proposed to spend 
the winter, and in the spring proceed again to the 
north with a different crew. A proposition to this 
effect, together with a full account of his discoveries, 
he forwarded to his employers in Holland, who re- 
sponded with a peremptory order for him to return 
at once with the Half Moon. But ere he could do 
this the English authorities seized him on the 
ground that, being an English subject, he had no 
right to engage in the service of a rival power ; the 
Half Moon, therefore, proceeded without her cap- 
tain. The subsequent fate of this eminent naviga- 
tor was a sad but heroic one. The next year, 1610, 
he was sent by the Muscovy Company — an English 
corporation chartered in 1555, to prosecute the 
trade with Russia — into the northern seas to search 
for the baffling passage to India, and in pursuit of it 
discovered the great bay and strait still known by his 
name. Almost in the moment of his success, how- 
ever, the crew mutinied and set him adrift on the 
waste in an open boat with his son and other adher- 
ents. No traces of the party were ever after discov- 
ered, though an expedition was sent out from Eng- 
land to search for them. 

Two years later, in 161 1, the intrepid Dutch navi- 
gator Adrian Block visited Manhattan Island, coasted 
the shores of Long Island Sound, discovering the 
Connecticut River and the island still bearing his 



IN TR OD UC TOR Y. 1 1 

name, and then, returning to Holland, published a 
very graphic and detailed account of his voyages. 
But the haughty East India Company saw nothing 
to attract them in the western wilderness, and still 
continued their search for a shorter passage to the 
East. There were certain shrewd merchants in 
Amsterdam, however, who had not been admitted to 
a share in the profits of the East India Company, 
and who saw what a rich trade in furs and other 
commodities might be established with the new 
country. They proceeded to form a trading com- 
pany, which was formally chartered by the States- 
General and given the exclusive privilege of trading 
to *' New Netherlands," for the term of three years, 
counting from January i, 1615. In this charter the 
country was first called New Netherland. The mer- 
chants began by building a trading house and fort on 
an island, near the present site of Albany, and an- 
other on Manhattan Island, and enjoyed a profitable 
trade, but the company was endowed with no civil 
powers and eflected no settlement. Meanwhile, at 
home, a company was growing up which was to 
exert a great influence on the destinies of Manhat- 
tan. This company, after thirty years of dissensions, 
was at length chartered by the States-General. It 
was known as the West India Company, and was 
one of the most unique and privileged corporations 
in history. It was a private company, yet exercised 
many of the functions of a sovereign state. It could 
make war or peace, contract alliances, administer 
justice, appoint or dismiss governors, judges, and 
men-at-arms, build forts, ships, cities — in fact, do 



12 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

any thing that a sovereign state might do to promote 
trade and secure its stability. It had also a mo- 
nopoly of the trade for the Atlantic coasts of Africa 
and America. Its charter granted by the States- 
General is dated June 3, 1621, — the very year in 
which the truce with Spain terminated. Its projec- 
tors were certain merchants of the popular or anti- 
Spanish party, who had, in forming it, a twofold 
object : the crippling of Spain by attacks on her 
American possessions and on the vessels trading 
thither ; and the control of the rich trade in furs, 
herbs, native woods, and precious stones and metals 
in which the hills and woods of the New World were 
believed to abound. It was because this company 
was intended to act against the public enemy that 
such enormous powers were conferred upon it. As 
this company was the real founder of our city, some 
details of its organization may not be out of place. 
This was much like that of its great compeer, the 
East India Company. 

It was governed by five ** Chambers " or " Boards," 
called, respectively, the Chamber of Amsterdam 
(which had control of four ninths of the com- 
pany's interest), the Chamber of Zealand having 
two ninths, of Maeze with one ninth, of North Hol- 
land with one ninth, and of Friesland with one ninth. 
There were twenty managers for the Chamber of 
Amsterdam, twelve for that of Zealand, and four- 
teen for each of the other three. Each chamber had 
its separate directors and vessels, and fitted out its 
own voyages. The combined capital of the various 
chambers amounted to twelve millions of florins, 



IN TR ODUCTORY, 1 3 

equal to nearly five million dollars of our money. 
This great company having received from the States- 
General a grant of the whole magnificent territory 
discovered by Hudson, erected it into a province and 
committed its affairs to the care of the Amsterdam 
Chamber, while the other boards began actively to 
prosecute operations against the Spanish. For some 
time the Amsterdam Chamber paid little attention 
to the savage province in the west. Its attention, 
too, was absorbed by the fierce war with Spain. Im- 
mense fleets, many of them numbering seventy 
armed vessels each, were sent against the Spanish 
possessions in America, and captured prizes of such 
value that dividends ranging from twenty-five to 
seventy-five per cent, were declared. Bahia, in Bra- 
zil, was taken in 1624, ''the great silver fleet" of 
armed vessels carrying treasure from the South 
American mines to Spain in 1628, and in 1630 
the rich city of Pernambuco in Brazil. All Neth- 
erlands rang with the exploits of the privileged 
West India Company. But a clause in the charter 
of this company provided that it should " advance 
the peopling of the fruitful and unsettled parts," 
which had been granted it, and its enemies soon 
began to complain that it was doing nothing to 
carry out the conditions of this clause. Spurred 
on by these attacks, the company in 1624 sent 
thirty families of Protestant Walloons to New Neth- 
erlands, with orders to make a settlement at Fort 
Nassau, while eight men were to remain and estab- 
lish a post on Manhattan Island. These first set- 
tlers, the Walloons, were a worthy people, inhabi- 



14 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

tants of the frontier between France and Flanders, 
who had distinguished themselves in the wars with 
Spain by their valor and military spirit. 

In 1625 the company, encouraged by its South 
American successes, advertised for *' adventurers " to 
the New World, offering free transportation, employ- 
ment, and other inducements. Many hastened to 
enroll themselves, and toward the close of the year 
three large ships and a yacht were fitted out and de- 
spatched to Manhattan, bearing forty-five persons, 
men, women, and children, with their household fur- 
niture, farming utensils, and one hundred and three 
head of cattle. This event marks the founding of 
the colony of New Netherlands, later known as New 
York. Four years before, the Pilgrims had landed 
on Plymouth Rock, while Boston was founded three 
years later. Sir Walter Raleigh's colony had already 
been seventeen years established at Jamestown, Va. 
At St. Augustine, Fla., the Spaniard had been domi- 
ciled for nearly sixty years — since 1565. Everywhere 
else along the vast stretch of coast the forest still 
waved and the savage held possession. But the 
company hesitated to organize a government and 
send out a governor. It feared the English, who 
laid claim to the whole coast of North America, by 
virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots — John and Se- 
bastian — in 1497, and denounced the Dutch as inter- 
lopers. In 1625, however, this fear was removed by 
the forming of an alliance between England and the 
Netherlands, for the better prosecution of the war 
against Spain. The West India Company at once 
proceeded to form a government for the new country 



INTRODUCTORY. 



15 



and to appoint a director, or, in English, a governor. 
This director was Peter Minuit, of Wesel, in West- 
phalia, a man who had had experience of new 
countries while in the employ of the East India 
Company. He was, too, of a kind, conciliating disposi- 
tion, and possessed of a faculty for governing — in 
fact, much the best ruler that New Netherlands ever 
had. Minuit left Amsterdam for Manhattan in De- 
cember, 1625, in a ship picturesquely named the Sea 
Mew, and bearing with him quite a reinforcement of 
colonists. 







PART I. 
THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 




I. 



PETER MINUIT. 



Sometimes I allow fancy to picture the appear- 
ance of the island on that 4th of May, 1626, when 
the Sea Mew cast anchor off the point of the Battery. 
Nature's temples, not man's, then adorned it. Sombre 
forests overhung the Jersey shore and fringed the 
water-line of the island. A chain of low, craggy 
hills covered with noble forests of oak, chestnut, 
hickory, and other trees, with pretty grassv valleys 
between, extended from the Battery to near the 
present line of Canal Street ; on either side along the 
river banks were wide marshes stretching away to 
the north ; at Canal Street they bore directly across 
the island, and were so low that on high tides the 
water flowed across from river to river. In the 
sheltered valleys were the maize fields and queer 
villages of the Indians, and the rude log-cabins 
of the settlers who had come over the year before. 
Cow-paths crossed the marshes to the upper part 
of the island, which was much wilder and more 
savage, with precipitous ledges, and in many places 
dense thickets of grape-vines, creepers, blackberry 

19 



20 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

and other bushes which no one could penetrate. 
The settlers did not allow their sheep and calves to 
cross this marsh, lest they should be throttled by 
the wolves, bears, and panthers that lurked in the 
thickets, and in their letters home they complained 
of the deer and wild turkeys that broke in and de- 
stroyed their crops. Minuit's first step — probably 
before landing his people — was to purchase the island 
of its Indian owners. He had been directed to do 
this by the company for two reasons: first, to satisfy 
the Indians and gain their friendship ; second, to 
strengthen the company's title to the country, as 
against the English. This recognition of the prop- 
erty right of the Indian was the uniform custom of 
the Dutch in settling New Netherlands. The bar- 
gain was made on the 6th of May, 1626, on the 
present site of the Battery, perhaps on the very spot 
where Verrazano had planted his cross one hundred 
and two years before. Old Knickerbocker's delight- 
ful account of the affair, in his version of the story 
of New York, will at once recur to the reader ; but 
Knickerbocker's exuberant fancy often played sad 
pranks with his historical faculty. The scene as 
it actually occurred must have been exceedingly 
picturesque. 

On the one side were the savages, clad in deer- 
skins or in waist-belts of woven grass ; on the other, 
stern, bearded men whose brave costumes and digni- 
fied bearing were well calculated to overawe the rude 
natives. The Hollanders wore long-skirted coats, some 
loose, some girt about the waist with a military sash, 
velvet breeches ending at the knee in black Holland 



PETER MINUIT. 21 

stockings, and for foot-gear military boots with high 
flaring tops, or low shoes adorned with silver buckles. 
Their hats were made of felt, and were low in the 
crown with very wide brims, which were looped up 
or not, at the fancy of the wearer. In a sash, slung 
over the right shoulder and passing under the left 
arm, a short sword was suspended, but no other war- 
like weapons were visible. A strong sea-chest of 
the solid though clumsy workmanship peculiar to 
Dutch artificers stood open between the two parties, 
filled with beads, buttons, ribbons, gayly embroidered 
coats, and similar articles, which were spread out be- 
fore the delighted savages -and were offered in ex- 
change for their island. The red men were only too 
glad to accept, and thus, for baubles worth scarcely 
twenty-four dollars, the island, now covered with 
miles of splendid buildings, passed into the hands of 
Europeans. 

The Dutch, as we have seen, found the Indians in 
possession of Manhattan Island. It is quite time 
that the reader was introduced to these Indians. 
This particular tribe was called the Manhattos or 
Manhattans, whence the name of the island. They 
were a branch of the great Algonkin-Lenape family 
of aborigines. Their neighbors, with whom they 
were often at war, were the Hackensacks and Rari- 
tans, who lived on the opposite shore of the Hud- 
son ; the Weekqueskucks, Tankitikes, and Packamies, 
whose territories lay north of the Raritans ; and the 
Canarsees, Rockaways, Menikokes, Massapeagues, 
Mattinecocks, Missaqueges, Corchaugs, Secatauges, 
and Shinnecocks, Long Island Indians. On the 



22 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

western bank of the upper Hudson, extending in- 
land some seventy miles, were the fierce Mohawks, 
a part of the great clan of the Five Nations. Op- 
posite, inhabiting the country between the Hudson 
and the Connecticut, were the Mohegans, another 
powerful tribe. With these tribes the colonists were 
often in contact. Their first peculiarity, as noted by 
the curious settlers, was their color, which was of a 
dull copper, or obscure orange hue, like the bark of 
the cinnamon tree. Their clothing was, in summer, 
a piece of deer-skin tied around the waist, in winter 
the skins of animals sewed together, and hanging 
loosely from the shoulders. After the Dutch came 
they used in place of buckskin a piece of duffels, or 
coarse cloth, thrown over the right shoulder and 
falling to the knees, which served as a cloak by day 
and a blanket by night. The men went bareheaded. 
Their hair was coarse, black, and very strong. Some 
had hair only on one side of the head, some on both, 
but all wore the scalp-lock ; it was a point of honor 
with them. This lock was formed as follows : a 
strip of hair three fingers broad was first allowed to 
grow on the top of the head from the forehead to 
the neck. This was cut short, except a tuft on the 
top of the head three fingers long, which was made 
to stand erect like a cock's-comb by smearing it with 
bear's-grease. The women or squaws allowed their 
hair to grow, and bound it behind in a coil shaped 
like a beaver's tail, over which they drew a square cap 
ornamented with wampum. The Indians were ex- 
tremely fond of ornament ; even the implements the 
Dutch gave them were devoted to this use. Hecke- 



PETER MINUIT. 23 

welder, for instance, relates that they hung the axes 
and hoes given them about their necks, and used the 
stockings for tobacco-pouches ; and Creuxis tells of a 
Huron girl reared by some Ursuline nuns, who on 
her marriage was given a complete suit of clothes in 
Parisian style ; but what was the surprise of the nuns 
a few days later to see the young husband arrayed 
in the finery and strutting up and down before their 
convent with an air of exultation which was greatly 
increased on seeing the nuns at the windows smiling 
at his queer appearance ! Wampum played an im- 
portant part in their economy. It was their money, 
their measure of value. " It was an ornament, a 
tribute ; it ratified treaties, confirmed alliances, sealed 
friendships, cemented peace, and was accepted as a 
blood atonement." In making it the Indian artificer 
took the inside of the stem of the great conks cast 
up on the shore, and fashioned from it a small, 
smooth, white bead, through which he drilled a 
small hole. For another kind he took the inside 
purple face "of the mussel shell, and made beads 
shaped like a straw, one third of an inch long, 
which were then bored lengthwise, and strung on 
hempen threads or the dried sinews of wild animals. 
These were then woven into strips of a hand's 
width and two feet long, called " belts" of wampum. 
The white beads were served in the same way, but 
their value was only half that of the purple beads. 
"They value these little bones," said Dr. Mega- 
polensis, '' as highly as many Christians do gold, 
silver, or pearls, valuing our money no better than 
they do iron.' 



24 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

In political economy these people were com- 
munists, socialists. The land was held in common ; 
the hunt, the fisheries, were free to all, and their 
condition is an excellent illustration of the utility of 
socialism when its principles are put into practice. 
They were anarchists, too, in that they had no law. 
Each did as he pleased, restrained only by his savage 
instincts of right and wrong. Minor crimes were 
unpunished. Murder was avenged by the next of 
kin, provided he met the murderer within twenty- 
four hours after the deed was committed. If he 
did not, the crime could be atoned for by the pay- 
ment of wampum. Each tribe had its own chief, and 
separate practices and government. The houses of 
the Indians were mere huts made by binding the tops 
of saplings together, and covering the frame thus 
formed with strips of birch bark ; some of the dwell- 
ings were communal — inhabited by many families. 
One shown in the engraving, found on Manhattan 
Island by the Dutch, was one hundred and eighty 
yards long by twenty feet wide. There were within 
it pots and kettles for cooking food, sharpened 
stones for axes, sharpened shells for knives, wooden 
bowls from which the food was eaten, beds formed 
of bulrushes or the skins of wild animals. The 
Indians used for food the flesh of animals and fish 
cooked whole, corn, pumpkins, roots, nuts, and ber- 
ries. They had boats made of birch bark or hol- 
lowed out of the trunks of trees, the largest being 
capable of holding fourteen men, or one hundred 
and fifty bushels of grain. Calmly considered, these 
savages were not a people calculated to inspire 




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1-1 



26 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

respect. They were uncleanly in their food, their 
dwellings, and their persons. They had neither arts, 
science, nor commerce, as we understand those terms^ 
and there was much in their character and condition 
to justify the opinion freely expressed by the Dutch, 
that they '' were children of the Devil,'' '' mere cum- 
berers of the ground." 

In the midst of this wild, untamed people Minuet 
set up his orderly government — the product of a 
thousand years of judicial wisdom and patriotism. 
Let us consider it briefly. The Director was abso- 
lute monarch of his little world, except that he 
could not execute the death penalty ; his subjects 
also had the right of appeal to the home company, 
and even from that body's decision to the States- 
General. Minuit was also instructed to appoint an 
advisory council of five of the wisest and most pru- 
dent men of the colony, to whose opinions he was 
expected to give due weight. There were but two 
other officers in the colony — the secretary of the 
Council Board and the Schout-fiscal — the latter an 
ofificial who makes as great a figure in the early 
records of Manhattan as the Director himself. He 
was sheriff and constable, State's attorney to con- 
vict, and prisoner's council to defend, collector of the 
customs too, and beadle and tithing-man on Sunday. 
If we fancy him, with his wand of office in his hand, 
preceding the Burgomasters and Schepens to church 
on the Lord's Day, and during service patrolling the 
streets, seeing that no slave or Indian profaned the 
hour by gaming, or tapster by selling beer, we shall 
view him in the guise most familiar to the people. 



PETER MINUIT. 2/ 

The men whom Minuit governed were little more 
than fiefs or servants of the company. They could 
not at this time hold land, not even the ground on 
which their dwellings stood ; nor lawfully engage in 
trade with the Indians, nor among themselves, nor 
manufacture the necessaries of life. The privileged 
West India Company held the right to do all these 
things. Minuit had brought with him a competent 
engineer — one Kryn Fredericke,— and his first step 
after forming his government was to build a fort to 
defend it. It was a triangular earthwork with bas- 
tions and red cedar palisades, and stood on a slight 
elevation near the point where Broadway enters the 
Battery. Minuit named it Fort Amsterdam. Next 
the busy workers opened quarries in the island crags, 
and of the " Manhattan stone " found there, built a 
rude, strong warehouse for housing the company's 
stores and other property. This warehouse was a 
creditable work — considering the means at hand for 
building it — with its stone walls, roof thatched with 
reeds, and those quaint crow-step gables dear to the 
heart of every Dutchman, of which one may still see 
a good specimen in the pretty cottage of Washing- 
ton Irving at Sunnyside. The next public work 
was a '' horse mill," for the grinding of grain by 
horse-power — for they seem to have lacked the tools 
and gear to build a windmill, after the fashion of 
Hollanders. Some thirty small cabins were also 
built along the East River shore, and a store was 
opened in a corner of one of the great warehouses, 
and placed in charge of a salaried servant of the 
company. Only a church and a minister were lack- 



28 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

ing to complete the equipment of the village, but 
church and minister as yet there was not. That the 
people might not be wholly without spiritual coun- 
sel, however, the company had sent out two "Zuk- 
enstroosters," or ''Consolers of the Sick " (lay read- 
ers, we should call them), and they called the people 
together on the Sabbath and expounded the Scrip- 
tures to them. Their church — the first church in the 
city of five hundred temples — was the loft of the 
horse-mill, rudely fitted up with benches and chairs. 

Two years later, a regularly ordained pastor, the 
Rev. Jonas Michaelis, arrived and organized a church, 
whose lineal descendant we shall find in Rev. Dr. 
Terry's church, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 
Twenty-first Street. Minuit was also busy in extend- 
ing and cementing trade with the Indians. His 
voyageurs, in sloop, ship's boat, and canoe, explored 
every bay and creek of the North River where an 
Indian lodge was planted, exchanging their beads, 
axes, knives, and gayly colored cloths for furs, and 
inviting the Indians to come down and trade with 
their white brothers at the fort. Many accepted the 
invitation, and soon parties of savages in blankets 
or skins, some laden with bales of fur, others with 
venison, turkeys, wild fowl, and other game, were 
familiar objects in the streets of Manhattan. The 
company's warehouse became a busy place. 

The ship Arms of Amsterdam which sailed for 
Amsterdam September 23, 1626, carried home 
''7,246 beaver skins, I78|- otter skins, 675 otter 
skins, 48 minck skins, 36 wild-cat skins, 33 minck 
skins, 34 rat skins, and much oak and hickory 



PETER MINUIT. 29 

timber/' the whole valued at 45,000 guilders, or 
nearly $19,000. This ship also took samples of the 
" summer grain " the colonists had gathered at their 
recent harvest, viz., wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck- 
wheat, canary seed, beans, and flax. And she bore, 
too, news of the birth of the '' firstborn Christian, 
daughter" in New Netherland — Sarah Rapaelje, 
daughter of Jan Joris Rapaelje, born June 9, 1625. 

An incident occurred this autumn which involved 
the colony a few years later in a terrible Indian war, 
and did much to destroy that confidence between 
the Dutch and Indians which the Director was anx- 
ious to cultivate. A Wukquaesguk Indian coming 
to town to trade, accompanied by his nephew, a 
mere lad, was set upon by three of the Director's 
negro slaves, and not only despoiled of his goods 
but barbarously murdered. The lad escaped, and as 
soon as he became a man wreaked bloody vengeance, 
not, as we shall see, on the guilty negroes, but on 
the innocent whites. 

From the Indians who came to trade with him, 
Minuit heard scattered bits of news about his neigh- 
bors, the English on Plymouth Bay, and felt a desire 
to communicate with them. So he wrote two let- 
ters to Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, " in a very 
fair hand, the one in French and the other in 
Dutch," and signed by Isaac de Rasieres as provin- 
cial secretary, inquiring after his Excellency's health, 
and offering to accommodate him with any Euro- 
pean goods the English might want in exchange for 
beaver skins and other wares. Governor Bradford 
replied very courteously, saying that he had not for- 



30 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

gotten the kindness shown the Pilgrims in Holland, 
but that for the current year they were well supplied 
with necessaries; "thereafter" he would be glad to 
trade '^ if the rates were reasonable." At the same 
time he expressed a doubt as to the propriety of the 
Dutch traffic with the Indians on English territory. 
Director Minuit replied promptly, and, as evidence 
of good-will, sent a " rundlet of sugar and two Hol- 
land cheeses " ; but he firmly maintained the right 
of the Dutch to trade in the disputed territory. 
Governor Bradford, in his reply, modestly disclaimed 
the titles bestowed by his " worthy and loving " 
brother of New Netherlands as being " over high " 
and beyond his deserts, but asked that an ambassador 
be sent to confer on the matter. Isaac de Rasieres, 
the secretary, was chosen for this delicate and im- 
portant mission. Now Rasieres was by nature a very 
presentable man, and we may be sure that on this 
occasion he was made to appear at his best. He 
donned his long coat with its silver buttons, his vel- 
vet breeches, and black silk stockings, slipped on his 
military boots, thrust his sword into its sash, and 
with a noble retinue of trumpeters and men-at-arms, 
marched down to the company's dock, where the 
barque Nassau^ neatly painted and furnished, and 
loaded with wampum, a chest of sugar, and '' cloth 
of three sorts and colors," was waiting to receive 
him. Of the voyage we have, happily, a minute 
account by de Rasieres himself, given his patron, 
Samuel Bloemmaert, in Holland. 

The Nassau sailed through Long Island Sound, 
we learn, bravely flying the orange, white, and blue 



PETER MINUIT. 3 1 

flag at her peak, threaded the island passages of Nar- 
ragansett Bay, and then ran '' east by north fourteen 
miles to Frenchman's Point, where in a little harbor 
where a stream came in the English had an out- 
post." This was the present Manomet, in the town 
of Sandwich, at the head of Buzzard's Bay, on the 
south side of the isthmus connecting Cape Cod with 
the mainland, and which will be shortly the southern 
terminus of the Cape Cod ship canal. Plymouth was 
twenty miles north, across the isthmus *' four or 
five miles" then by boat up the coast. At Mano- 
met the Nassau anchored, while the ambassador de- 
spatched a trumpeter to Governor Bradford with a 
message saying he had come in a ship to visit him 
and to report to him " the good will and favor which 
the Honorable Lords of the American West India 
Company had toward him." He mentioned the 
cloth of three sorts and colors, the chest of white 
sugar, and the seawan (wampum), that they might 
trade, and begged the Governor to send a convey- 
ance for him, as he had not walked so far " in three 
or four years." Governor Bradford accordingly sent a 
boat for him, and he came '' honorably attended by a 
noise of trumpets," as the Governor himself records. 
De Rasieres spent several days in the village courte- 
ously entertained by Governor Bradford, and laid the 
foundation of a very lucrative trade between the two 
lone colonies. He gives in his letter a graphic de- 
scription of Plymouth, and of the customs of its 
people. Among other pleasant details he tells us 
how the Pilgrims attended church. 

" They assemble by beat of drum, each with his mus- 



32 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. ■ 

ket or firelock, in front of the captain's (Miles Standish's) 
door ; they have their cloaks on, and place themselves in 
order, three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without 
beat of drum. Behind comes the Governor in a long 
robe ; beside him on the right hand the preacher with 
his cloak on, and on the left hand the captain (Miles 
Standish) with his side arms and. cloak on, and with a 
small cane in his hand, and so they march in good order, 
and each sets his arms down near him." 

The secretary's mission seems to have been success- 
ful in every particular. The Pilgrims were much 
pleased with his genteel appearance and courteous 
behavior, and when he returned in triumph to New 
Amsterdam he bore a letter from Governor Bradford 
to his '' very loving and worthy friends and Christian 
neighbors," the Dutch, assuring them of his disposi- 
tion to trade, and of his great regard and friendship. 

The little colony prospered, however, without Eng- 
lish trade. Six farms or " boweries " were opened 
by the company in the natural meadows along the 
shores of the East River, which were stocked with 
cattle, goats, hogs, and sheep, and tilled by its serv- 
ants. Ships were continually arriving from the 
father-land, bringing colonists, cattle, and household 
goods. By 1628 the number of inhabitants had risen 
to two hundred and seventy. In 1629 the imports 
amounted to 113,000 guilders (about $45,200),"^ and 

*A guilder, strictly speaking, was worth forty-one and a-half 
cents. A stuyver, two cents. Wampum, which soon became the 
circulating medium, four beads for a stuyver. A braided string a 
fathom long, four guilders. Beaver skins, also used as currency, 
were at first worth three dollars of our money, though subject to 
fluctuation. 



PETER MINUIT. 33 

the exports to 130,000. The company, however, 
was not satisfied with this progress, nor with the 
rich future it promised. The expense of colo- 
nizing the new country, under the liberal terms 
granted emigrants, was very great, and the directors 
now perfected a plan by which this outlay might be 
met, in part at least, while their privileges should be 
retained. 

There were many wealthy merchants among their 
stockholders, who, it was thought, would value a title 
and an estate. To these men they said, in effect : 

" We have a vast territory in America lying along the 
Mauritius River (the Dutch name of the Hudson) and on 
the shores of the sea. To each of you who will, at his 
own expense, establish a colony there we will freely grant 
these privileges : an estate extending sixteen miles along 
the one bank of a navigable river, or eight miles on both 
banks, and stretching inland as far as you can explore ; 
a title, the title of patroon or feudal chief ; exempt you 
and your people for ten years from taxation : grant you 
freedom in trade, except in furs, which we reserve to our- 
selves, and full property rights ; protect you from ene- 
mies, and supply you with negro servants. You may take 
up this land anywhere but on Manhattan Island, which 
we reserve to ourselves. You shall forever possess and 
enjoy these lands, with the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers, 
and fountains, the supreme authority and jurisdiction, 
the fishing, fowling, and grinding ; and if you shall so 
prosper as to found cities, you shall have authority to 
establish for them ofiicers and magistrates. In return 
you must agree to satisfy the Indians for the land taken ; 
to plant a colony of fifty souls above fifteen years age 



34 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

within four years ; to provide a minister and schoolmas- 
ter for the colony as soon as possible, and until that is 
done ' a comforter of the sick.' " 

Several directors of the company were willing to 
accept these terms, and a charter styled the " Charter 
of Freedoms and Exemptions " was granted by the 
Assembly of the XIX., as the governing body of the 
West India Company was called. It was dated June 
7, 1629, and was a lengthy document containing 
thirty-one articles, from which we can learn some- 
thing more of these curious feudal establishments in 
free America. The patroons were to govern their 
people conformably to the rules of government made 
or to be made by the directors of the company. 
They were to have liberty to sail or traffic all along 
the coast from " Florida to Terra Neuf," provided 
they ''entered " the goods received in this trade at 
the company's custom house at Manhattan, and paid a 
duty of five per cent, upon them ; they were to have 
two thirds of all prizes taken from the Spaniards, the 
company reserving the other third ; they might trade 
in furs in places where the company had no "facto- 
ries " or stations, provided they paid the company 
one guilder on each merchantable beaver and other 
skin. It was further provided that in cases tried 
before the patroons, where more than fifty guilders 
were involved, an appeal might be taken to the 
commander and council in the New Netherland. If 
any one should discover " minerals, precious stones, 
crystals, marbles, or any pearl fishery" on the estate, 
it should remain the property of the patroon, he pay- 
ing the discoverer a certain price to be agreed on be- 



PETER MINUIT. 35 

forehand. The people were not to make any woollen, 
linen, or cotton cloth, or weave any other stuffs, on 
pain of banishment. Finally, the colonies lying in 
the same neighborhood were to appoint a deputy, 
who should give information to the governor and 
council of all things transpiring in his district, and 
who was obliged to report at least once in every 
twelve months. This charter was the outcome of 
the social system then prevailing in Europe and 
among nearly all civilized nations. At this very mo- 
ment the French were founding " lordships " and 
'' seigneuries " of similar character in Canada, while 
forty years later the English proprietors of Carolina 
attempted to introduce the same system into that 
province in the guise of landgraves and caciques. 
Its merits were that it satisfied the Indian for his 
soil, it provided schools and churches, and settled 
men in strong, well-ordered communities ; its evils 
were that it introduced monopoly, servitude, and 
aristocratic privilege. Colonies were quickly estab- 
lished under this instrument. 

On June i, 1629, Samuel Bloemmaert and 
Samuel Godyn, through agents, purchased of the 
Indians a tract of country on the southwestern 
shores of Delaware Bay two miles in width, and ex- 
tending inland from Cape Henlopen thirty-two miles. 
The next spring, April, 1630, Kilian Van Rensselaer, 
a pearl merchant of Amsterdam, and also a director, 
purchased of the Indians, through agents, a large 
tract of land on the upper Hudson, which was in- 
creased by subsequent purchases until he was master 
of a territory twenty-four miles long by forty-eight 



36 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

broad, and of an estimated area of seven hundred 
thousand acres ; a tract now comprising the counties 
of Albany, Rensselaer, and a part of Columbia. Next 
month, May, 1630, directors Godyn and Bloemmaert 
increased their estate by buying a tract on the shore 
of Delaware Bay, opposite their former purchase, six- 
teen miles long by sixteen square. Michael de Pauw 
another director, finding the best lands on the Hud- 
sen and the Delaware taken, purchased, in June, the 
territory called Hobokan-Hacking, situated opposite 
New Amsterdam, on the west side of the Hudson, to 
which he added, in the course of the following month, 
Staten Island and the territory north of his first pur- 
chase, now known as Jersey City. These lands were 
in all cases bought of the Indians, through agents, and 
were duly ratified before the director and council at 
Fort Amsterdam, who " sealed them with the seal of 
New Netherland in red wax." The tract on the Dela- 
ware was called Zwanendael or the Valley of Swans. 
De Pauw gave his purchase the pleasant-sounding 
name Pavonia ; the estate on the upper Hudson was 
called Rensselaerwyck. Zwanendael was the cradle 
of the present State of Delaware, and Pavonia that of 
New Jersey. These purchases of the more desirable 
lands in the company's territory excited the jealousy 
of the remaining directors, and to appease them, and 
also to secure their aid in settling the lands acquired, 
several others were allowed to share in the enter- 
prise ; Godyn, De Laet the famous Dutch historian, 
Bloemmaert, Adam Bissels, and Toussaint Moussart, 
being admitted to a share in Rensselaerwyck, and 
six directors together with Captain Petersen De 



PETER MINUIT. 37 

Vries sharing Zwanendael among them. The latter 
was soon colonized, and farmers, cattle, and farming 
implements were sent to Rensselaerwyck, which soon 
became a flourishing settlement. Kilian Van Rens- 
selaer, the patroon, did not himself remove to the 
colony, but entrusted the management of its affairs 
to an agent called a Seneschal. His sons, however, 
emigrated and became successive lords of the great 
estate, founding a family that has held an honorable 
place in the annals of the city and State. Michael 
Pauw also founded on his patroonship, a village 
which he called " the Commune/' and which occu- 
pied the present site of Communipaw, and no doubt 
gave its name to that ancient village. Very soon 
the directors had cause to regret giving the patroons 
such privileges, for they found the latter much more 
eager to secure the rich trade in furs, than to clear 
and cultivate their lands. The patroons based their 
right to the fur trade on the fifteenth article of their 
charter, which gave them the privilege of trading 
on the coast from Newfoundland to Florida, and in 
the interior anywhere " where the company had no 
commissaries at the time the charter of 1629 was 
granted," and their ships and their agents were soon 
out trading at almost every point. 

The directors held that this was too liberal a ren- 
dering of the fifteenth article ; that the whole tenor 
of the charter was to give the company a monopoly 
of the fur trade, on which it chiefly depended for its 
revenues, and a bitter quarrel arose which greatly re- 
tarded the progress of the colony. The charter to 
the patroons was revised, new articles were proposed, 



38 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

— some of the directors even advocated doing away 
with the charter altogether. The quarrel was carried 
before their High Mightinesses the States-General, 
and complaints were made against Director Minuit^ 
who had of^cially ratified the purchase of the pa- 
troons, and who, it was charged, had favored them as 
against the company. Another circumstance aided 
in bringing Minuit into disrepute at this time. A 
short time before, two Belgian ship-carpenters had 
appeared in New Amsterdam and, seeking out the 
Director, had asked his aid in building a famous ship, 
the largest that had ever floated. The Director, seeing 
in the project a means of exhibiting to Holland mer- 
chants the resources of his colony in ship timber, 
consented, and in due time the New Netherlands^ a 
ship of eight hundred tons and thirty guns — one of 
the finest pieces of naval architecture that had ever 
been built — was launched. It cost much more than 
had been expected, however, and the bills were 
severely criticised at home both by the stockholders 
and by the press. Incited by all these complaints, 
the States-General decided to investigate the Direc- 
tor, the patroons, and the affairs of the West India 
Company in general, the result being that Minuit 
was recalled and the privileges of the patroons re- 
stricted. Minuit embarked for Holland in the spring 
of 1632, in the ship Eendracht (Union), — which also 
carried five thousand beaver skins belonging to the 
company — leaving the affairs of the colony m the 
hands of his council. But his troubles were not yet 
over. His ship was driven by stress of weather into 
Plymouth, England, and was seized by the authori- 



PETER MINUIT. 39 

ties there on the charge that she had traded to and 
obtained her cargo in countries subject to the Eng~ 
Hsh king. Minuit promptly advised the directors, 
and himself hurried up to London and laid the case 
before the Dutch ambassadors, by whom it was 
brought to the attention of King Charles. The 
ambassadors also wrote to the States-General, asking 
them to send over all the documents proving the 
right of the Dutch to trade to New Netherland, 
" as that right will undoubtedly be sharply disputed 
in England." A long and spirited correspondence 
followed, in which the right of the two nations to the 
disputed territory was freely^ canvassed without ac- 
complishing any result, the English government at 
last consenting to release the Eendracht, '^ saving and 
without any prejudice to His Majesty's rights." The 
seizure, however, had served to assert the claim of 
the English to New Netherlands, which uninter- 
rupted possession by the Dutch might have im- 
paired. Director Minuit will again appear in our 
history. He had ruled the infant colony for six 
years, in general, it must be said, with wisdom and 
moderation. Under his sway it had increased in 
wealth, trade, and population, and had escaped 
serious difficulties with the Indians on the one hand, 
and with the English on the other. Of the four 
governors of New York under the Dutch dynasty 
none are worthier of more kindly remembrance 
than Peter Minuit. 




II. 

WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 



The directors, after much laying of their heads 
together, and canvassing of numerous candidates in 
their great oak-panelled chamber in Amsterdam, 
fixed on Wouter Van Twiller as Minuit's successor. 
" Wouter Van Twiller," — the name provokes a smile 
as one recalls the famous description by Knicker- 
bocker : 

" He was exactly five feet six inches in height, and 
six feet five inches in circumference. His head was a 
perfect sphere, and of such stupendous dimensions that 
Dame Nature, with all her sex's ingenuity, would have 
been puzzled to construct a neck capable of supporting 
it ; wherefore she wisely declined the attempt, and set- 
tled it firmly on the top of his backbone just between the 
shoulders. His body was oblong and particularly capa- 
cious at bottom. His legs were short but sturdy in pro- 
portion to the weight they had to sustain ; so that when 
erect he had not a little the appearance of a beer-barrel 
on skids." 

A grotesque figure truly, and not all caricature, 
for Van Twiller was stout of body and slow of 

40 



WOUTER VAAt TWlLLEk. 4I 

thought ; in habit something of a roysterer, with a 
burgomaster's fondness for good dinners and good 
wine, and withal of a petty spirit and narrow mind — 
a man totally unfitted for the place. 

He had been a clerk in the employ of the West 
India Company, we are told, and had been appointed 
at the instance of the powerful patroon and director, 
Kilian Van Rensselaer, whose niece he had married, 
and whose interests he might be trusted to look 
after, which seems all the more queer when we con- 
sider that the chief grievance against Minuit was 
that he had favored the patroons at the expense of 
the company. Van Twiller arrived early in April, 
1633. As he came ashore, he saw between two 
and three hundred men and women with stolid 
Dutch faces, the men clad in wide, deep-seated 
breeches tattered and earth-stained, the women in 
shabby kerchiefs and short gowns ; behind them 
Indians looking curiously on ; and, forming the back- 
ground, noisome marshes and fens, a few clearings 
and cornfields, and a great deal of forest. 

He took up his quarters in the fort, and the people 
went on with their daily tasks as though nothing un- 
usual had occurred. It was but a few days later 
that a quaint, tub-like craft furled her sails in the 
harbor, and despatched a boat shoreward, bearing a 
stranger differing much in appearance from the 
average voyageur of that day. He was slight and 
compact in frame, with fair, Saxon features, curly 
hair, and kindly blue eyes— one of the most polite, 
humane, and interesting of the knights-errant of 
his time — the co-patroon, Petersen De Vries. At 



42 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

home he was known as the rich merchant, but hav- 
ing early become interested in America, as we have 
seen, had been among the first to plant a colony 
in the new countries. A sad story he told the Direc- 
tor over their wine that night. He had left Hol- 
land, he said, the November before, in his yacht, with 
provisions and stores for his colony of Zwanendael, 
but on arriving there found only blackened ruins and 
the bones of his massacred people. An Indian was 
enticed on board and induced to tell the pitiful story. 
The Dutch, they learned, had reared a pillar on a 
prominent point in their territory, to which they 
had afifixed a piece of tin bearing the arms of Hol- 
land, as an emblem of sovereignty. An Indian chief 
spying it, had innocently taken it to make himself a 
tobacco-box. Hoossett, whom De Vries had left 
in charge of the colony, on discovering the theft, had 
expressed great indignation, whereupon certain In- 
dian allies greatly attached to him had killed the 
offender. The murderers were sternly rebuked by the 
commander, and sent away in disgrace. But in the 
Indian code blood must atone for blood, and one 
day, as the colonists were nearly all in the tobacco- 
fields, a band of savages had rushed upon them and 
massacred them all — thirty-two in the tobacco-fields, 
Hoossett and a sick man in the company's house. 
They had further glutted their vengeance by setting 
fire to the company's buildings. All the money and 
labor spent on the plantation had been made useless 
in a moment ; worse than all, his confidence in 
being able to keep peace with the Indians had been 
rudely assailed. 



WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 43 

Being now without occupation, De Vries lingered 
a long time in the settlement, and one day witnessed 
an incident which showed the Director's mettle. 
They were chatting and smoking on the fort parapet 
after dinner one day, when they saw a vessel pass 
the Narrows and head directly for the fort. She flew 
the Red Cross of England, but her straight lines and 
" ship-shape " appearance sufficiently proclaimed her 
nationality. She came to under the guns of the 
fort, and presently despatched a boat to the shore. 
A man in resplendent uniform stood in its bow. 
*' What ship is that ? " growled Van Twiller, as the 
boat grounded. *' The William^ of London," re- 
plied the officer, with a deep obeisance, " and last 
from Boston." ^' Who commands?" pursued the 
Director. " Jacob Eelkens," was the reply. ** I know 
the varlet," said De Vries, quietly; *' he was post 
trader at Fort Orange (Albany) for the first Dutch 
trading company, and was dismissed for thievery." 
" What doth he here ? " continued the Director. 
*' Prithee, to trade with the savage," replied the 
envoy. The Director bit his lip. Here was the old 
vexed question of English supremacy again present- 
ing itself. In fact, like Banquo's ghost, it was con- 
tinually popping up in those days on the most inop- 
portune and unexpected occasions. '' He hath sent 
me to present compliments," continued the envoy, 
'' and to invite your Excellency and the Honorable 
Councillors to dine with him to-morrow. He bade 
me say there shall be no lack of good wine and ale." 

The pleasures of the table were the Director's chief 
failing, and though De Vries tried to dissuade him, 



44 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

he decided to accept Eelkens' invitation. Next day, 
two boats conveyed the Director, his mighty coun- 
cillors, and De Vries to the William, where, as the 
patroon afterward told the home company, the songs 
and mad antics of Van Twiller in his cup did griev- 
ously tend to bring the Dutch government into dis- 
repute, and caused the English to laugh at the Di- 
rector's authority. The /^27/2<^;/2 lay five days before 
the town, and then Eelkens coolly announced his 
intention of sailing to Fort Orange to trade with his 
old friends, the Indians, there. The Director was 
almost beside himself at the audacity of this pro- 
posal, and the measures he took to prevent it were 
characteristic of the man. He gathered the whole 
crew of the William into the fort and, to overawe 
them, mustered his men-at-arms, ran up the tri-col- 
ored flag, and ordered his gunner to fire three pieces 
of ordnance in honor of the Prince of Orange. But 
Eelkens, no whit dismayed, sent his gunner on board 
ship with orders to throw the Union Jack to the 
breeze and fire a whole broadside in honor of King 
Charles, — or in defiance of Van Twiller. While this 
was being done he hurried on board with his crew, 
weighed anchor, and stood up the river, his sailors 
twirling their thumbs at the Dutch garrison, which 
stood petrified at the audacity of it. Van Twiller 
was first to recover speech. He ordered a barrel of 
wine to be brought and broached, and then invited 
the entire village, which had been attracted to the 
spot by the guns, to join him in drinking it. Then 
made valiant by the potion he swung his hat and 
shouted : '' All ye who love the Prince of Orange 



WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 45 

and me, emulate me in this and aid me in repelling 
the violence of that Englishman." 

As quickly as was consistent with Dutch stolidity 
three armed vessels — a pinnace, a caravel, and a hoy 
— were got ready, and, manned with one hundred 
and four soldiers, stood up the river in pursuit. 
Meantime, Eelkens had proceeded to a point about 
a mile below Fort Orange, landed his cargo, raised a 
marquee and began a brisk trade with the Mohawks 
who were delighted to meet again their old friend 
and ally. It was in vain that Houten, the Dutch 
factor at Fort Orange, came in his shallop, wreathed 
in green boughs, with a trumpeter making stirring 
music, sat up a Dutch booth beside the English, and 
did his utmost to disparage their goods and hinder 
their trade. Eelkens was familiar with the Indian 
language and tastes, and was fast disposing of his 
cargo, when, fourteen days after his arrival, the three 
armed vessels we have seen leaving New Amster- 
dam hove in sight. Getting ashore as quickly as 
possible, the Dutch officer in command gave Eelkens 
two letters protesting against his action, and order- 
ing him to depart forthwith. There were soldiers 
from '' both the Dutch forts, armed with muskets, 
half-pikes, swords, and other weapons," to enforce 
these demands. Eelkens not complying as promptly 
as they desired, they attacked the Indians who were 
trading with him and '' beat them well," and then, 
disregarding the trader's pleadings that he was on 
British soil and had a right to trade there, they 
pulled his tent about his ears and hurried his goods 
on board the William ; as they did so, they added 



46 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

insult to injury by sounding a trumpet in their boat 
*' in disgrace of the EngHsh." Eelkens and his goods 
being on board the William, the Dutch took posses- 
sion of her and escorted her to the mouth of the 
river; or, as Eelkens described it : " The Dutch came 
along with us in their shallop, and they sticked green 
bowes all about her, and drank strong waters, and 
sounded their trumpet in a triumphing manner 
over us." 

Thus ended the third attempt of the English to as- 
sert their right to the Hudson as against the Dutch. 

Van Twiller was soon embroiled in a deeper quar- 
rel with the English colonies on the east. Both 
parties cast covetous eyes on the Fresh River (the 
Connecticut), which had been discovered by Adrian 
Block, in 1614, and which had since been visited at 
stated periods by Dutch traders who derived a yearly 
revenue from it of ten thousand beaver skins, beside 
other peltries. The Dutch claimed the river by vir- 
tue of Block's discovery ; the colonies of Plymouth 
and Massachusetts Bay by grant of the English 
king. To strengthen his claim. Van Twiller, in 1632, 
bought a large tract of the Indians at Saybrook 
Point at the mouth of the river ; and in the summer 
of 1633, he sent his commissary, Jacob Van Curler, 
with a piece of duffels twenty-seven ells long, six 
axes, six kettles, eighteen knives, one sword-blade, 
one shears, and some toys, to buy a large tract called 
" Connittecock," embracing the present site of the 
city of Hartford. Van Curler built on his new pur- 
chase a trading post fortified with two cannon, which 
he called the House of Good Hope. This act of the 



WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 47 

Dutch caused great uneasiness when it was reported 
at Boston and Plymouth. Governor Winthrop con- 
tejited himself with an emphatic protest, but Gov- 
ernor Winslow, of Plymouth, proved himself a man 
of action. The frame of a house was quickly made 
ready and placed on board a vessel. A company of 
emigrants also embarked, and the little craft then 
proceeded coastwise to the mouth of the Connecti- 
cut and up that beautiful stream. Sped by favoring 
winds, it soon came to the House of Good Hope, 
where Van Curler stood by his guns to forbid her 
passage. '' Halt," he cried, '' or I shall fire ! " But 
the English kept right on. ''They were obeying the 
orders of the Governor of Plymouth," they said, 
*' and they should go on, though they died for it." 
They passed unmolested, and founded a settlement 
at Windsor, a few miles above Hartford, which be- 
came the nucleus of the State of Connecticut. Van 
Twiller protested, but his protests were treated with 
contempt by the English ; he then despatched an 
armed force of seventy men to clear the river. The 
doughty warriors finding the English resolute, and 
the woods (in their imagination) full of hostile sav- 
ages, returned valiantly to New Amsterdam, without 
striking a blow. The Director seems to have made 
no further attempt to dislodge the intruders, but to 
have contented himself with sending protests, and 
despatching lengthy accounts to his superiors at 
home. In a short time the English had established 
settlements at Springfield above Good Hope, at 
Wethersfield, just below, and at Saybrook, and were 
in virtual possession of the river. 



48 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

On the Delaware, however, Van Twiller was more 
fortunate. A fort (Nassau) had been early estab- 
lished on this river to command its trade, and then 
temporarily abandoned. A party of Virginia cav- 
aliers seized this fort early in the summer of 1635, 
pretending that it came within the confines of their 
territorv. A deserter bore the news to Fort Amster- 
dam, and the Director at once despatched a body of 
troops to capture the invaders. They returned in due 
time with the crest-fallen cavaliers as captives. There 
was great rejoicing in New Amsterdam — fanfare of 
trumpets, and toasts in honor of the victors, — but 
the Director was sorely puzzled to know what to do 
with his prisoners. At last he hit upon a plan, and 
calling them before him, he first soundly lectured 
them for their thievery and trespassing, and then 
shipped them '' pack and sack " to Virginia — which 
was certainly a very wise thing to do. 

In the management of his internal affairs, Gov- 
ernor Van Twiller was much more fortunate. He 
had some trouble with the powerful patroons who 
abated no whit of their pretensions, but otherwise 
affairs ran smoothly. An honorable peace was con- 
cluded with the Raritan Indians. New farms and 
villages were continually being opened in the vicini- 
ty. De Vries purchased Staten Island and founded 
a colony there. East of the Walloon settlement, on 
the present site of Brooklyn, Jacob Van Corlear 
bought a large tract of the Indians and founded a 
plantation. Andries Hudde, of the Governor's 
Council, in company with Wolfert Gerritsen, bought 
a large tract next to Van Corlear's, and the Gov- 



WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 49 

ernor himself purchased another adjoining them on 
the east, the whole forming the present town of 
Flatlands. Van Twiller also bought for himself 
Nutten, now Governor's Island, Blackwell and Great 
Barn islands. Under him, too, was given another 
grant to which we shall later refer ; that to Roelof 
Jans of sixty-two acres, which was later incorporated 
into the King's Farm, and now forms a part of the 
estate known as the Trinity Church property. In 
the erection of public buildings, and the giving in 
general a substantial and civilized air to the crude 
little town Van Twiller had an honorable record. 
Fort Amsterdam was completed, and a substan- 
tial guard-house of brick was erected within it for 
the Director, with barracks for the soldiers on the 
East River shore above the fort, and near by a par- 
sonage and stable, to which Domine Bogardus soon 
added a fine garden. A country house of brick was 
also built, " on the plantation," for the Governor. 
A barn, dwelling, brewery, and boat-house '' to be 
covered with tiles " on Farm No. i, a goat's stable 
"behind the five houses," several mills, and dwell- 
ings for the smith, cooper, corporal, and other offi- 
cials. All this was done at the expense of the West 
India Company, which had now become a wealthy 
and powerful corporation, owning one hundred and 
twenty vessels fully armed and equipped, and em- 
ploying an army of nearly nine thousand men. The 
furs annually exported from Manhattan had reached 
a value of one hundred thousand guilders, and Van 
Twiller reasoned correctly that a part of this revenue 
should be expended in making his capital more pre- 



50 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



sentable. The company, however, did not agree 
with him, and partly for his action in this respect, 
but chiefly because of charges by such responsible 
persons as De Vries and Van Dinclage, the Schout- 
fiscal, that he was diverting the company's moneys 
to his own enrichment, they decided to remove him. 
Van Twillerleft the colony under a cloud. Wilhelm 
Kieft, his successor, took the oath of office at Am- 
sterdam, September 2, 1637. 




THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE CITY. 




III. 

WILHELM KIEFT. 

The good barque Blessing, bearing Kieft and his 
party, arrived on the 28th of March, 1638, but the 
new Director did not receive a very hearty welcome 
from the motley throng gathered on the quay to re- 
ceive him. Tales not at all to his credit had pre- 
ceded him. He had failed as a merchant in Holland, 
it was whispered, and his portrait had been affixed to 
the gallows — a lasting disgrace ; and, when later, 
through the influence of friends he had been ap- 
pointed Minister to Turkey, and funds for the re- 
demption of Christians held by the heathen had 
been placed in his hands, he had turned the money 
to his own use, and the poor captives had continued 
to languish in bonds. Such were the popular tales. 
His personal appearance as he stepped ashore was 
not well calculated to win love or confidence. He 
was a little man with sharp, pinched features, a cold 
gray eye, a suspicious look, and the air of an auto- 
crat. A man of good natural abilities, but of little 
education ; a shrewd trader, austere in morals — in 
happy contrast to Van Twiller, — of a fiery, peppery 

51 



52 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

temper, conceited, opinionated, and tyrannical ; the 
very man to embroil himself with his people, and his 
people with their neighbors. The citizens soon found 
that the new Director was bent on establishing a 
despotism — one that chafed all the more because of 
the lax rule of Van Twiller. The company had 
given him authority to fix the number of his coun- 
cil. He. chose but one, and further curtailed the 
power of that one, by adopting a rule that in con- 
ducting the government his council should have but 
one vote, while he had two. His powers in other 
respects were so extraordinary as to create him a 
despot. His will was absolute. He erected courts, 
appointed all public officers, except such as were 
commissioned by the company ; made laws and 
ordinances and executed them, imposed taxes, levied 
fines, incorporated towns, and had every man's 
property at his mercy by his power of raising or 
lowering the price of wampum, then the chief circu- 
lating medium of the country. He extinguished 
Indian titles to land at his pleasure ; no purchases 
from the natives were valid without his sanction. 
No contracts, sales, transfers, or engagements were of 
effect unless they passed before him. He not only 
made and executed the laws, but construed them as 
judge. He decided all civil and criminal cases with- 
out the aid of a jury. He was the highest court of 
appeal in the colony. 

The council had heretofore been the only check 
on the governor's action, and this abolished, he be- 
came at once an absolute monarch. Having arranged 
matters to his liking, Kieft, in his shrewd, business- 



XV I LH ELM KIEFT. 53 

like way, began investigating tlie affairs of the 
colony, and found matters in very bad condition, as 
he reported to the company : the fort open on every 
side except " the stone point," the houses and public 
buildings all out of repair, the magazine for merchan- 
dise destroyed, every vessel in the harbor falling to 
pieces, only one windmill in operation, the farms Of 
the company without tenants and thrown into com- 
mons, the cattle all sold or on the plantations of Van 
Twiller. Vice, too, was prevalent, but the greatest 
evil was the illicit trade with the Indians. Every- 
body, from the patroon to the negro slave, he said, 
was engaged in it. Even Hans, instead of quietly 
toiling on his little farm, would secrete his demijohn 
of rum or canister of gunpowder, and barter it slyly 
with the Indian for his coveted beaver or otter skin. 
Another evil was the great lack of farmers. The 
Dutch colonists had a great repugnance to agricul- 
ture. Even if placed on farms, they would fol- 
low their hereditary instincts and become traders ; 
very different from their neighbors, the English 
pioneers, who immediately cleared their lands for 
farms, and soon became self-supporting freeholders. 
The Director thought he could change all this by a 
few strokes of the pen. One morning, on their way 
to business, the people were surprised to see the 
trees, walls, rocks, and corners of the houses covered 
in part with proclamations written in a bold, free 
hand, and signed with the Director's name. They 
read on them certain new laws for the government 
of the colony. Whoever sold powder or fire-arms to 
the Indians should suffer death ; if a servant of the 



54 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

company was found trafficking with the latter, he 
should lose his office and his wages ; if an outsider, 
his goods should be confiscated, and he himself cor- 
rected. No articles could be exported without the 
governor's permission ; no one could trade in any 
part of the company's territories without a license. 
Sailors could not remain on shore after sunset with- 
out special leave ; the company's servants of every 
grade must proceed to and leave off work at stated 
hours, and '' not waste their time." Fighting, re- 
belHon, theft, false swearing, calumny, '* and all 
other immoralities " were sternly forbidden. Lastly, 
the instrument appointed Thursday of each week for 
the regular sitting of the council for the trial of 
criminal cases and hearing of complaints. A second 
proclamation forbade all *' except those who sold 
wine at a decent price and in moderate quantities " 
to sell any liquor under a penalty of twenty-five 
guilders. An inspector of tobacco was also appoint- 
ed. The regulation that the colonists deemed the 
most oppressive, however, was one declaring that no 
contracts, bargains, sales, or public acts should be 
deemed valid unless they were written by the secre- 
tary of the province, a law similar in character to the 
famous " stamp act " of a century later. Another 
unwise regulation that Kieft soon made was one af- 
fecting the Indians. On the plea that the company 
was put to heavy expense for forts and soldiers on 
their account, he levied a tribute of maize, seawan, or 
furs, and when they refused to pay it, threatened to 
compel them by force. The effect of such stringent 
laws on a community so mixed and impatient of re- 



WILHELM KIEFT. 55 

straint was what a wiser man would have foreseen 
and guarded against. The ordinances were treated 
with contempt and openly violated. Prosecution 
and punishment followed ; there were some execu- 
tions for murder and mutiny, and the little Governor, 
lacking the respect of his subjects, was soon involved 
in constant broils in the effort to maintain his 
authority. 

We have spoken of the deplorable lack of farms in 
New Netherlands. To remove this state of things 
and promote trade, the West India Company this 
year, 1638, published a very important instrument, 
which abolished its monopoly of trade and of lands. 
By the provisions of this paper, any merchant in the 
Netherlands, " its allies or friends," might send 
cargoes to America in the company's ships, paying 
as freight ten per cent, of their value ; while '' to 
people the lands there more and more, and to bring 
them into a proper state of cultivation," every immi- 
grant to the new country was promised as much land 
as he " by himself and his family can properly cul- 
tivate," provided he paid after four years of cultiva- 
tion one tenth of the produce to the company. 

Religious freedom had always been enjoyed in 
New Netherlands, and these generous terms attract- 
ed a large immigration not only from Europe, but 
from New England, where the Puritans were begin- 
ning to prosecute the Quakers and Anabaptists, and 
drive them from the country. 

Scarcely was this matter settled when another 
foreign invasion threatened New Netherlands, and 
put the fiery Director in a glow of martial rage 



56 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

and patriotism. The Swedes this time were in- 
tent on carving a slice from Dutch territory. The 
attempt is interesting, as showing how nearly 
every great nation of Europe was concerned in 
the settlement of our country. Sweden had long 
turned a covetous eye upon America, and her 
Parliament, in the time of the great Gustavus 
Adolphus (1626), had created a corporation similar 
in character to the Dutch West India Company for 
its s^ettlement, but the German war and death of Gus-. 
tavus on the field of Lutzen (1632) prevented the 
company from being organized. Minuit had doubt- 
less heard of this fact, and on being dismissed from his 
government had hurried to the good Swedish Queen 
Christina, and had offered his services, the result 
being that as Director Kieft sat in his great chair of 
state one day, a breathless messenger hurried in with 
news that a Swedish frigate and her tender had 
sailed into Delaware Bay, and up the river, until 
brought to by the guns of the Dutch Fort Nassau. 
He further said that the frigate was commanded by 
Peter Minuit, who, though ordered by Peter Mey, 
the Dutch commander, to halt and show his com- 
mission, had refused, saying : " My queen hath as 
much right here as thou ; I shall pass, therefore, and 
erect a fort to be called by her name." Director 
Kieft is said to have been thrown into paroxysms of 
rage by this news, but as soon as he could control him- 
self, he sat down and dictated, by his secretary, Van 
Tienhoven, a truculent message to Minuit, which is so 
good an example of the style and thought of the men 
of that day that we print it, without further apology. 



WILHELM KIEFT. 57 

"I, Wilhem Kieft, Director General of New Nether- 
land, residing in the island of Manhattan, in the Fort 
Amsterdam, under the government of the High and 
Mighty States-General of the United Netherlands and 
the West India Company privileged by the Senate Cham- 
ber in Amsterdam, make known to thee, Peter Minuit, 
who stylest thyself commander in the service of Her Ma- 
jesty, the Queen of Sweeden, that the whole South River 
of New Netherland, both upper and lower, has been our 
property for many years, occupied with our forts, and 
sealed by our blood, which also was done when thou 
wast in the service of New Netherland, and is therefore 
well known to thee. But as thou art come between our 
forts to erect a fort to our damage and injury, which we 
will never permit, as we also believe Her Swedish Ma- 
jesty hath not empowered thee to erect fortifications on 
our coasts and rivers, or to settle people on the lands ad- 
joining, or to undertake any other thing to our prejudice ; 
now therefore we protest against all such encroachments 
and all the evil consequences from the same, as blood- 
shed, sedition, and whatever injury our trading company 
may suffer, and declare that we shall protect our rights 
in every manner that may be advisable," 

This document he despatched to Minuit by his 
commissary Jan Jansen Van Ilpendam. Minuit 
however treated the protest with contempt, and 
continued building his fort, w^hich stood nearly on 
the present site of the city of Wilmington. Kieft 
did not dare attack him, his timidity arising from the 
fact that though a tyrant he was also amenable to 
the chamber in Amsterdam. 

It is not necessary to give an extended account of 
Kieft's subsequent acts. His reign was marked by 



58 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

cruelty to the Indians — which in return brought sav- 
age vengeance on the colony — and by oppression of 
the people. One day in 1640, word came that some 
swine turned loose in the forests of Staten Island to 
feed on mast were missing. The Director at once 
asserted that the Raritan Indians had stolen them, 
and sent out a company of men-at-arms with orders 
to kill, burn, and destroy. The soldiers surrounded 
the unfortunate tribe in their village, slaughtered 
them without mercy, burned their wigwams and 
cornfields, and returned — to learn that a party of 
the company's servants on their way to Virginia 
had taken the swine. The Raritans in return de- 
scended on the bouwerie of De Vries at Staten 
Island, killed four of his planters, and burned his 
house and tobacco-barn. Kieft, frenzied with rage, 
now swore to exterminate the Raritans, although he 
had been enjoined by the company to keep peace 
with the Indians. He offered his allies, the River 
Indians, ten fathoms of wampum for every head of a 
Raritan, and twenty fathoms each for the heads of 
those who had committed the Staten Island massa- 
cre. This reward set five hundred human hounds 
on the trail of the wretched Raritans, and in a few 
days Pacham, the chief of the Tankitikes, who re- 
sided about Sing Sing, brought in, dangling on the 
end of a stick, the head of the chief who had slain 
De Vries' men. At the same time, so fierce was the 
hunt that the Raritans came in and begged for peace. 
Another day there arose a great outcry in the village, 
and the gossips learned that an inoffensive old man, 
Claes Smit, the village wheelwright and a general fa- 



WILHELM KTEFT. 59 

vorite, had been murdered in his cottage in the su- 
burbs, where he lived alone, and it was soon known 
that the murderer was the Weckquaesgek Indian, 
whose uncle had been murdered twenty years before 
in the time of Peter Minuit. Kieft promptly de- 
manded the murderer from the Weckquaesgek chief, 
but the chief refused the demand. " He was sorry," 
he said, *' that twenty Christians had not been killed." 
The Indian had but performed a pious duty in aven- 
ging an uncle whom the Dutch had slain twenty years 
before." The Director would have declared war at 
once, but feared the people, who were beginning to 
murmur at the results of his Indian policy, which 
threatened them all with the torch and tomahawk of 
the savage. A little cowed by these complaints Kieft 
made a concession to popular rights^ — he called a 
meeting at the fort, of the patroons and heads of fam- 
ilies to advise with him in the emergency, and this 
meeting, quick to improve the occasion, appointed a 
council of twelve wise men to advise with the Director 
in the affair, much to the latter's disgust. The coun- 
cil, with Captain De Vries at its head, advised delay 
in declaring war for three reasons : the crops were still 
unharvested ; the cattle in the woods ; and the peo- 
ple scattered about on their farms. In the winter, 
they argued, these conditions would not exist, while 
the Indians could be taken at great disadvantage. 
The impatient governor was therefore forced to wait 
until the winter had set in. 

In January the twelve gave their consent, and at 
the same time ventured to call the Director's atten- 
tion to certain evils in his government, and to ask 



6o THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

for their removal, as well as for certain concessions 
to popular rights — a council being one of them. 
Kieft promised fairly at the time, but soon after 
issued a proclamation dismissing the council, which 
had been called to advise on the murder of Claes 
Smit, and, *' which now being done," he thanked 
them for the trouble they had taken, and promised 
to make use of their written advice with " God's 
help and fitting time," "but," concluded the paper: 
"we propose no more meetings, as such tend to dan- 
gerous consequences and to the great injury both of 
the country and of our authority." The calling of 
any assemblies or meetings in future was therefore 
prohibited, on pain of punishment. Being now un- 
fettered in action, Kieft ordered his ensign, Hendrick 
Van Dyck, to proceed with eighty soldiers from the 
fort against the Weckquaesgeks, and punish them with 
fire and sword. The party set out on its errand, but 
became bewildered in the forests and returned with- 
out having even seen the foe. The Weckquaesgeks, 
however, soon discovered the trail pointing toward 
their village, and, alarmed at the dangers they had 
but barely escaped, came in and sued for peace. 

In 1643, the governor's policy provoked a general 
Indian war — the gravest misfortune that could have 
befallen the colony. In this war the River Indians, 
the Connecticut Indians, and the Long, Island tribes 
formed a confederation to exterminate the Dutch. 
Fifteen hundred savage warriors were arrayed against 
two hundred and fifty whites. Soon the outlying 
farms and settlements were attacked and given to the 
flames, their people being killed or driven in terror 



WILHELM KIEFT. 6 1 

to the fort; and as the Indians continued to increase 
in numbers, the people were in mortal terror lest the 
fort itself should be taken. We at this distance can 
have little conception of the terror and dismay which 
beset the people in those troublous times. The 
Director acted like one bereft of his senses. He 
would not listen to counsel ; his troops in their ex- 
peditions were ordered to spare no one. Terrible 
massacres, at which humanity shudders, were com- 
mitted by his stern orders. 

In February, 1643, for instance, the Weckquaesgek 
and Tappaen tribes came fleeing breathless and 
trembling to the fort for protection. The Mohawks, 
they said, had made a descent on them and had slain 
seventy of their people, besides carrying many into 
captivity. Every instinct of humanity would seem 
to have pleaded for these helpless refugees, but Kieft, 
deaf to the entreaties of the humane De Vries and 
others, sent a force which surprised them at night 
and butchered every one, man, woman, and child, in 
cold blood. An expedition against the Canarsees, 
in 1644, destroyed one hundred and twenty warriors 
with the loss of but one man killed and three 
wounded. Again, in February, 1645, the Stamford 
tribe of Indians was surprised in their village as they 
were celebrating a festival, their wigwams were 
burned, and between five and six hundred men, 
women, and children perished by fire and sword. 
These massacres, we may be sure, were avenged by 
the allied tribes to the full extent of their powers. 
Meantime De Vries had retired to Holland in dis- 
gust, and the people had sent petition after petition 



62 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

to the home authorities, reciting the crimes and 
arbitrary acts of the Director, and demanding his 
recall. But the influence of the Patroon Van Rens- 
selaer and other of Kieft's friends was so powerful 
in Amsterdam that for a long time these complaints 
were unheeded. At length, in the spring of 1645, 
on the colonists threatening to desert the island in 
a body unless the Director was removed, he was re- 
called, and Petrus Stuyvesant was appointed in his 
stead. Kieft will not again appear in our history in 
any official capacity. In taking leave of him it is 
but just to set over against the evil that he wrought, 
the good that he did. For he certainly did much 
to make Manhattan Island more beautiful and 
habitable. He straightened the streets and enacted 
laws for keeping them in better sanitary condition. 
He repaired the fort and other public buildings, and 
set out orchards and gardens, and encouraged others 
to do so. He built, in 1642, a great stone tavern, 
which later became the Stadt Huys or City Hall, and 
he began within the fort and nearly finished a large 
stone church, to be paid for in part by the company's 
funds, and in part by popular subscriptions ; and the 
dwellings that he built for the company's servants 
and on the company's farms were of such character 
as to add much to the beauty and solidity of the 
future city. 



^Sl 




1^^ 


J^^^c^ 


^^y 



IV. 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 



We may be sure that the news of a new governor 
was received with the wildest dehght by the oppressed 
people, and that long before his appearance in New 
Netherland, his personal history, character, and ap- 
pearance were known and had been freely canvassed. 
He was a native of Friesland, the gossips said, son 
of a clergyman there. Educated to the profession of 
arms, most of his life had been spent in the service 
of the West India Company, in those brilliant battles, 
sieges, naval combats, and descents against the Span- 
ish in the West Indies and South America, which, if 
they had ever found a competent historian, would 
form one of the most brilliant episodes in American 
colonial history. As governor of Curagoa, Stuyve- 
sant had undertaken to reduce the Portuguese island 
of St. Martin, and, losing a leg in the action, had re- 
turned to Holland for medical advice. There the 
West India Company had seized on him as the 
proper person to bring order and prosperity to their 
mismanaged colony. His portrait shows him to have 
been a marked character, — strong, intellectual, ener- 

64 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 65 

getic, austere, an autocrat by nature and training. 
The colonists therefore derived Httle comfort from 
his appointment. It was regarded as meaning that 
the company would still continue its despotic form 
of government. But any thing was preferable to 
that under which they had suffered for ten years ; 
and when, on the nth of May, 1647, Stuyvesant's 
fleet was reported below, the whole populace, ex- 
Director and all, hastened to the landing to welcome 
him. It was quite a gallant fleet of four large ves- 
sels, and it bore a noble company — the Director, his 
wife, a beautiful and accomplished lady ; Mrs. Bayard, 
the governor's widowed sister, and her three boys ; 
the Vice-Director, and Council, which had been ap- 
pointed in Holland as a check to the Director ; sol- 
diers and colonists. They had been on their way 
since the Christmas before, having steered south to 
Cura^oa and the West Indies on some business of 
the Director's. As the party came to land, the people 
waved their hats and handkerchiefs, and the guns of 
the fort thundered a salute. Kieft then made an 
address of welcome, to which the new magistrate re- 
sponded in a way that did not at all please his hear- 
ers. IJis air and bearing, they observed, was that of 
a prince come to reign over conquered subjects. "' I 
shall be in my government as a father over his chil- 
dren, for the advantage of the privileged West India 
Company, the burghers, and the country," he told 
them. The new Director was inaugurated on the 
27th of May, and his speech on the occasion con- 
firmed the ill impression produced by his former re- 
marks. Said an eye-witness : '' He kept the people 



66 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

standing, with their heads uncovered, for more than 
an hour, while he wore his chapeau as if he were the 
Czar of Muscovy." The same day Stuyvesant an- 
nounced his council, which had been appointed, as 
we have seen, in Holland. Lubbertus Van Dinclage 
to be Vice-Director, and La Montague, Adraen Key- 
ser, and Captain Bryant Newton, an Englishman, 
who had been twenty years in the company's em- 
ploy, to be counsellors. The former secretary. Van 
Tienhoven, was retained. Hendrick Van Dyck was 
made Schout-fiscal. Two new offices had been created 
— an English secretary and interpreter, and a master 
of equipage. A court of justice was also established, 
with Van Dinclage as presiding judge, and the Direc- 
tor acting as a court of appeals — a concession to the 
people, 

Stuyvesant's name has become classic through the 
pages of Knickerbocker, and the portrait of him there 
given comes much nearer the truth of history than 
those of his predecessors in office. His long reign of 
seventeen years was marked by some events of great 
importance, though all were overshadowed by his 
last act, the surrender of the city to the English. 
We will consider these events in their order, with 
special reference to their influence on the fortunes 
of the city. 

The Director's first act taught the people that no 
concessions might be expected from him. Cornells 
Melyn, the president, and Jochim Pietersen Kuyter, 
^member of the council appointed by the people in 
Kieft's day, having lost heavily in the Indian war, 
petitioned that an inquiry as to its causes might be 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 6/ 

made, and that the testimony of citizens under oath 
might be taken for use in an investigation of the case 
before the company in Holland. Stuyvesant ap- 
pointed a commission to decide on the merits of the 
petition ; but considering it a dangerous precedent 
for the people to call any acts of their rulers in ques- 
tion, he went before the commission and told them 
that in his opinion " the two malignant fellows were 
disturbers of the peace, and that it was treason to 
complain of one's magistrates, whether there was 
cause or not." The petition was therefore refused. 
But the matter was not allowed to rest here. Kieft, 
secure of the favor of the governor, had the two 
burghers arrested on a charge of " rebellion and sedi- 
tion." Their trial followed quickly, Stuyvesant him- 
self occupying the bench with the newly-appointed 
judge. Van Dinclage, by his side. It was a remark- 
able trial in its way — one in which justice was out- 
raged and humanity had little place. There were no 
lawyers to be had, and the prisoners pleaded their own 
case — and made an able defence. .They proved the 
truth of the charges against Kieft, and that in pre- 
ferring them they were not moved by vindictive 
feelings. They admitted having complained to the 
company, as they believed they had a right to. All 
had been done openly. Yet in the face of the law 
and evidence the prisoners were declared guilty. 
Hanging them was for a time seriously considered. 
The right of appeal was denied. " If I was persuaded 
that you would bring this matter before their High 
Mightinesses, I would have you hanged on the high- 
est tree in New Netherland," said Stuyvesant, as he 



68 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

pronounced their sentence, which for Melyn was 
banishment for seven years and a fine of three hun- 
dred guilders, and for Kuyter banishment for three 
years and a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders. 
This act of Stuyvesant, regarded from any stand- 
point, must be pronounced most impolitic and unfor- 
tunate. He meddled in a quarrel which did not con- 
cern him, and which might well have been referred 
to the company at home. Pie angered the people, 
and he did not save his prerogative ; for his action 
violated both the law and traditions of the, father- 
land, and brought on him a stinging rebuke, when, in 
1649, Melyn returned restored to his full rights, and 
bearing a summons to the governor from the States- 
General and Prince of Orange to appear before them 
and answer for his conduct, either in person or by 
his attorney. But we anticipate. At the time of 
the trial the ship Princess was about to sail for Hol- 
land, and the banished men took passage on her. 
With them^ sailed Domine Bogardus, Kieft and his 
ill-gotten fortune, and a large company — in all over 
one hundred souls. The Princess^ however, never 
reached her destination, for a fierce storm overtook 
her and drove her violently on the rocky Welsh 
coast. Kuyter and Melyn, with some eighteen 
others, escaped. Kieft, Domine Bogardus, and the 
rest of the ship's company perished. Kieft's fate 
excited little sorrow either at home or in his former 
government ; it was generally accepted as a fitting 
retribution. Said De Vries in Holland, on hearing 
of his death : '' I told William Kieft in 1643 that I 
doubted not that vengeance for the innocent blood 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 69 

he had shed in his murderings would sooner or later 
come on his head." Soon after his coming, Stuyve- 
sant called a public meeting, which named nine men 
to advise and assist him in the government. His 
next step of importance was a journey to Hartford 
(not Boston, as Diedrich Knickerbocker records) to 
confer with the authorities there on boundaries, run- 
away slaves, the attitude of the Indians, and other 
vexed questions. The Director went by vessel in 
military state, with a retinue of servants, trumpeters, 
and men-at-arms, and four days after setting out 
reached the Connecticut capital, where he was re- 
ceived with equal state by Governor Winthrop and 
the dignitaries of New England there assembled. 
After a week spent in discussion, it was agreed to sub- 
mit the questions at issue to arbitrators; and after 
remaining several days longer, feted and feasted by 
his very good friends, the Director-General returned 
as he had gone to his seat of empire. But he soon 
found that he had acted unwisely : his somevx^hat re- 
fractory subjects were jealous of his friendship with 
the English ; and the fact that he had entrusted the 
interests of New Netherlands to the two English arbi- 
trators was made the cause of fresh charges against 
him at home. It was charged that the Director 
looked for support to his English rather than to 
his Dutch subjects, which was perhaps true, for the 
monarchical English were no doubt much more to 
the Director's taste than the republican Dutch. 

In the fifth year of Stuyvesant's reign, April, 
1652, a great event occurred. New Amsterdam 
was made a city — endowed with municipal rights. 



70 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Two hundred and thirty-five years have passed since 
then, and for that reason the reader will wish to 
know all that can be known of this first city charter. 
It was modelled after the ancient charter of Amster- 
dam, which provided for the election by the people 
of a schout, four burgomasters, nine schepens, and an 
advisory council of thirty-six men. The first four- 
teen comprised the board of city fathers, and made 
the laws and ordinances governing the city. They 
were the " Fathers of the Burghery," guardians of 
the city poor, of widows and orphans, principal 
church-wardens, and farmers of the excise, and they 
held in trust and managed the city's funds and fran- 
chises. No burgher could be seized for debt unless it 
was done in their presence ; no sentence of death could 
be pronounced without their consent, or executed 
without they were present. They were custodians 
of the city seal ; all official documents were drawn 
in their name, and they had authority to preserve 
the peace of the city even to the calling out of the 
burgher guard. They also constituted a city court 
for the trial of civil and criminal cases. Both boards 
were of great antiquity, the board of schepens dating 
back to the year 1270, and that of burgomasters 
to the fourteenth century. 

In granting to New Amsterdam this great dignity 
the company limited the number of burgomasters 
to two, and of schepens to five, and stipulated 
that they should be elected by the citizens as in the 
city of Amsterdam. Governor Stuyvesant pro- 
claimed the new city on the 2d of February, 1653, 
at the feast of Candlemas, but instead of allowing 




w 

'* 
o 



72 THE SrORY OF NEW YORK. 

the people to choose their own officers as the com- 
pany had directed, he proceeded to appoint them, 
and he gave the city fathers to understand that their 
existence would not lessen his authority, but that he 
should preside at their meetings when he deemed it 
necessary, and advise them in matters of importance. 
It was a privilege very distasteful to the autocratic 
governor, and he did all he could to restrict the 
people in their enjoyment of it. The two burgo- 
masters named were Arent Van Hattan and Martin 
Cregier, the latter a man of importance in the city, 
captain of the burgher guard and landlord of a 
popular tavern situated opposite the Bowling Green. 
The five schepens were Paulus Van der Grist, 
commander of the Gellert, Stuyvesant's flag-ship, 
Maximilian Van Gheel, Allard Anthony, a wholesale 
merchant, Petro Van Couwenhoven, and William 
Beekman, the ancestor of the Beekman family in 
New York, who had come over in the same ship with 
Stuyvesant, and who later rose to distinction in the 
government. The old stone tavern built by Kieft 
was remodelled, cleaned, and furbished up and set 
apart as a Stadt Huys or City Hall, and here the city 
fathers held their sessions. So on that far-off Feb- 
ruary day the city came into being. It contained 
about fifteen hundred inhabitants, some three hun- 
dred houses, a few of stone, but most of them rude 
wooden structures, no trade of its own, and scarcely 
farms enough to supply it with the necessaries of 
life. Two years now passed without incident. In 
the December of 1654 Stuyvesant decided to make 
a voyage to the West Indies. His jurisdiction also 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 73 

included the islands of Curagoa, Buenaire, and Aru- 
ba, and he wished to see how affairs were progress- 
ing there ; he thought, too, that he might be able to 
arrange for a trade with the Spanish possessions in 
that quarter. News of this voyage created quite an 
excitement in the little city. The Common Council 
called a special meeting, and resolved that, " Where- 
as, The Right Honorable Peter Stuyvesant, intend- 
ing to depart, the burgomasters and schepens shall 
compliment him before he takes his gallant voyage, 
and shall for this purpose provide a gay repast on 
Wednesday next in the Council Chamber of the 
City Hall." The dinner came off and was a grand 
affair, with a long list of edibles, Jamaica rum, potent 
Hollands, and rare old Madeira in abundance. 
Under its influence the austere governor mellowed, 
and, in a happy speech, presented the city with its 
long-delayed seal. The city fathers crowded round 
to examine it. It bore the arms of old Amsterdam — 
three crasses saltier, with a beaver for a crest, and 
above on the mantle the initial letters C. W. I. C, 
meaning the '' Chartered West India Comoany." 
A wreath of laurel encircled the legend, " Sigilliim 
Amstello Fainensis in Novo Belgio " (Seal of Amster- 
dam in New Belgium). 

The governor returned in July of the same year 
to find awaiting him a message from Holland 
that inflamed all his military ardor. It was an 
order to drive the Swedes from the South River, 
where, as we have seen, they had been planted 
by Director Minuit in Kieft's time. Never had 
he set about executing an order from Holland 



74 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

with greater alacrity. His trumpeters were sent out 
to beat up town and country for volunteers. Three 
armed vessels had been provided by the directors. 
The city fathers furnished one. Three more were 
chartered, and on Sunday, September 5 th, '* after the 
sermon," seven vessels, with a force of seven hun- 
dred men on board, including the Domine Megapo- 
lensis, sailed out into the ocean. There were two 
Swedish forts and settlements on the Delaware — 
Trinity and Christina ; the latter near the present 
site of Wilmington, the other a few miles below. 
On Friday the fleet appeared before Fort Trinity, 
and the trumpeters were sent to demand its surren- 
der. Captain Schute, the commander, asked time to 
consult with Governor Risingh at Christina, but this 
was denied ; then he asked for an armistice till next 
morning, which was granted. When morning came 
he demanded as conditions of surrender that he 
should be allowed to march out with his body-guard 
of twelve men, fully accoutred and colors flying, 
the other soldiers to retain their side-arms, and the 
commander and other officers their private property. 
Stuyvesant willingly granted these terms, and on 
Saturday the Dutch troops took possession. Next 
day Domine Megapolensis preached a *' sermon of 
thanksgiving," in return for the bloodless victory. 
Stuyvesant, like a good general, pushed on at once 
to invest Fort Christina, where Governor Risingh 
with the balance of the Swedish force, comprising 
some thirty men, was entrenched. Again the trum- 
peters sounded their demand, but Governor Risingh 
showed a disposition to parley and to argue the mat- 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 75 

ten He recited the whole history of the Swedish 
occupation, and proved that the present attack was 
a gross outrage on a people with whom the Nether- 
lands were at peace, and only to be justified on the 
plea that "might makes right." The parley lasted 
for several days ; at length Stuyvesant, finding him- 
self worsted in the argument, became angry, and 
threatened to assault the fort and *' to give no qiter- 
ter," unless the Swedes promptly surrendered. On 
the 25th, therefore, their colors were lowered, and 
the Swedish empire in the New World ceased to 
exist. Governor Risingh, however, succeeded in 
making generous terms for himself and people. They 
were to " march out with their arms, colors flying, 
matches lighted, drums beating, and fifes playing." 
The cannon were to be sent to Sweden, if desired. 
Such Swedes as wished to remain were to be pro- 
tected in their rights of person and property. 

Thus without bloodshed New Sweden fell, but in 
the first flush of victory a courier arrived with such 
terrible news that the governor forgot his triumph, and 
hastened back with all possible speed to his capital. 
The Indian was again on the war-path, and a gen- 
eral massacre of the Dutch was threatened. This 
was the story the courier told. A few days after the 
fleet had left, ex-Sheriff VanDyck surprised an Indian 
Avoman in his orchard stealing peaches one morning, 
and shot her dead on the spot. The murder pro- 
voked her tribe to vengeance. Knowing that the 
governor and militia were away, they rapidly 
gathered the warriors of all the river tribes, the Con- 
necticut and Long Island Indians, into an army, and 



'J^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

suddenly appeared before the city, nineteen hundred 
strong, in sixty-four canoes. It was just at day- 
break, September 15, 1655, that the savages spread 
through the city, breaking into a few houses on the 
pretence of looking for enemy Indians, but, prob- 
ably to satisfy themselves that the murderer, Van 
Dyck, was in the city. The burgomasters and 
schepens went around among them in a kindly way, 
and asked to see their sachems, and when they had 
gathered them in the fort, prevailed on them to call 
their forces out of the city. The Indians retired to 
Nutten (now Governor's) Island, but soon after dusk 
returned, hastened to the house of Van Dyck, and 
killed him. Schepen Van der Grist, who lived next 
door, hurried out and was stricken down by an In- 
dian with an axe. At once the hue and cry of mur- 
der was raised. The few remaining soldiers, with 
the burgher guard, sprang to arms, and, after a brisk 
action, drove the savages off, killing three and wound- 
ing others. The Indians, enraged at this punish- 
ment, hastened to Hoboken and Pavonia, where they 
killed every person they could find, and ravaged the 
plantations ; thence they hurried to Staten Island 
and other parts of New Jersey, where the same 
scenes were enacted. 

In three days one hundred men, women, and chil- 
dren were murdered, and as many more made cap- 
tives. Twenty-eight fruitful plantations were wholly 
laid waste, and property to the value of eighty 
thousand dollars destroyed. Quite as bad in its: 
results was the general feeling of terror and insecu- 
rity that prevailed, driving farmers from their bow- 
eries, and retarding settlement of the country.. 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 77 

Stuyvesant, on his return, acted much more wisely 
than Kieft had done on a similar occasion. Instead 
of retaliating, he called the Indian chiefs together, 
and by kind words and presents succeeded in placat- 
ing them and restoring confidence. 

The last years of Stuyvesant's reign were marred 
by cruel religious persecutions, which seem the more 
cruel because they were in open violation of the 
company's instructions as well as the traditions of 
father-land. " Allow all the free exercise of their re- 
ligion in their own houses," said the company, but 
the Director would recognize only the Dutch Re- 
formed Church. He sent back to Holland the Rev. 
Ernestus Goetwater, a Lutheran minister, who was 
sent over in 1656 by his co-religionists to found a 
Lutheran Church in his city ; and he fined and im- 
prisoned Lutheran parents who refused to have their 
children baptized in the Dutch Church. By and by 
he did much harsher things than these. One day, 
hearing that a Baptist clergyman in Flushing who 
had not been licensed by him had administered the 
Sacrament and baptized some converts, he ordered 
him brought before him, and fined him one thousand 
pounds and banished him from the province. The 
Quakers, however, met with the harshest treatment. 
Many of these peculiar people had been banished 
from New England about this time, and had taken 
refuge in New Netherlands, where they met the 
hearty reprobation of the clergy and the Director. 
Domine Megapolensis complained that the scum of 
New England was drifting into New Netherlands. 
Domine Dresius boldly asked the Director why he 



7^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

harbored persons who were driven from the other 
colonies as worse than a pestilence. By and by 
Robert Hodshone, an Englishman, a leading Quaker, 
began preaching in Hempstead. One day, soon 
after, while walking in his garden, he was seized and 
brought before a magistrate of Hempstead, one 
Richard Gildersleeve, who bound him over for trial, 
and hastened to acquaint Stuyvesant with the facts. 
The latter, all zeal, ordered his schout-fiscal to pro- 
ceed that evening with a guard of musketeers and se- 
cure the prisoner and his effects. This was done. 
The soldiers seized Hodshone, bound and tied him 
securely, face down, to the rear end of a cart. Two 
women, one with a babe at the breast, who had been 
arrested for sheltering the preacher in their houses, 
were then placed in the vehicle, and the cavalcade 
took its slow way to the city. We can imagine the 
laughter and rude jests it elicited, as it wound 
though the streets to the common gaol, where the 
prisoners were thrust into separate dungeons. In a 
few days the Director and council met in the City 
Hall to dispose of Hodshone's case, and pronounced 
sentence — a fine of two hundred and forty dollars, and 
in default of payment, two years' hard labor with a 
negro at the wheelbarrow. Having neither money 
nor friends to discharge his fine, the prisoner was 
chained to the barrow with the negro malefactor; 
he was quite as obstinate as his persecutors, how- 
ever, and refused to work, saying that he knew not 
how to do manual kbor, and could not endure it if 
he did. The poor man was imprisoned, cruelly 
beaten, hung up by the thumbs, and otherwise ill- 




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8o THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

treated, but would not yield. At last, on the appeal 
of Mrs. Bayard, the Director's sister, he was set at 
liberty. This severity excited the general horror of 
the people, and although many more arrests were 
made, the governor did not again proceed to such 
extremities. 

Thus for years, slave to a despotic governor, vassal 
to a private corporation, controlled by a people with 
no genius for colonization, the city struggled for ex- 
istence, and was outstripped in the race by everyone 
of the several English colonies on the north and on 
the south. But in the year 1664 there came a turn 
of fortune's wheel, and New York also became an 
English colony. England, as we have tried to make 
prominent in the preceding pages, had never relin- 
quished her claim to the territory covered by New 
Netherlands. In the year 1664, believing that the 
fruit was ripe, she stretched forth her hand and 
plucked it. Events all through the reign of Stuyve- 
sant had been leading up to this consummation. 
Charles I. of England had been deposed and be- 
headed. Oliver Cromwell had governed as Protector, 
and after his death, by a natural reaction, the mon- 
archy was restored and Charles 11. ascended the 
throne of his father. Charles was a weak, pleasure- 
loving king, and the management of foreign affairs 
fell into the hands of his ministers and of his abler 
brother, the Duke of York. From this moment 
aggressions began upon the little strip of Dutch 
territory in America, which were intended to sweep 
it out of existence. In 1662, because a man whom 
he very much liked — John Winthrop the younger — 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 8 1 

desired it, Charles granted to Connecticut a charter 
which gave her jurisdiction over the territory 
bounded east by Narragansett Bay, north by the 
Massachusetts hne, south by the sea, and west by 
the Pacific Ocean, with all the islands '* thereunto 
belonging." Lord Baltimore, proprietor of the 
colony of Maryland, claimed the Dutch possessions 
on the South River under his charter, its northern 
boundary being the fortieth parallel. In 1664, how- 
ever, ignoring these prior grants, Charles gave to 
James, Duke of York, the entire territory claimed by 
the Dutch, and that energetic nobleman at once set 
about taking forcible possession of his property. He 
had no love for the Dutch, by whom he had once 
been libelled without being able to obtain satisfac- 
tion. Besides, personal interest was involved. He 
was Governor of the Royal African Company, an 
association of merchants which traded to the Gold 
Coast, and which had been nearly driven from the 
field by the superior business talent of their Dutch 
competitors. He was also quite ready to provoke 
a war with Holland, in which he might distinguish 
himself, and thus fix the attention of the nation 
upon himself, for he already had his eye on the 
throne. Nor were the ministers of King Charles at 
all backward in aiding the prince in these ambitious 
designs. Four men-of-war, the Guinea of thirty-six 
guns, the Elias of thirty, the Martin of sixteen, and 
the William and Nicholas of ten, were borrowed of 
the king, and four hundred and fifty soldiers — men 
of the line, under command of Colonel Richard 
NicoUs, a veteran officer — were placed on board of 



82 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

them. Colonel Nicolls was appointed Deputy Gov- 
ernor of the province when it should be taken. 
Under him were three commissioners, Sir Robert 
Carr, Sir George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, 
who were given power to erect the conquered terri- 
tory into an English colony. These men also bore 
orders to the governors of the New England colonies 
to furnish men and means to aid in conquering the 
Dutch. The fleet left Portsmouth about the middle 
of May, 1664, and arrived at Boston late in July. 
Here the commissioners made their demand on the 
Massachusetts authorities for aid, and also on Con- 
necticut by an express sent to Governor Winthrop at 
Hartford. Massachusetts, whose Puritan sympathies 
were not heartily enlisted in King Charles' cause, re- 
sponded tardily, but Connecticut, which had been in 
almost constant collision with the Dutch on her 
western border, gladly aided the enterprise. Mean- 
time peace and tranquillity brooded over New Am- 
sterdam. Not the slightest preparation had been 
made to receive an enemy. Of the thirteen hundred 
pounds of powder in the fort seven hundred were 
unserviceable. There were one hundred and fifty 
regular soldiers to garrison it, and two hundred and 
fifty militia, but these so heartily detested the Di- 
rector that they could not be depended on in an 
emergency. No provision had been made for a 
siege. 

A certain merchant, one Richard Lord, of Lyme 
in Connecticut, sent his vessels both to Boston 
and New Amsterdam. He reached Manhattan from 
Boston, about the time the English fleet was expected 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 83 

there, and informed Stuyvesant that it was common 
rumor in Boston that the fleet was intended for the 
Dutch. The Director and council, alarmed, began 
active preparations for defence, but on the heels of 
the merchant came a letter from the Amsterdam 
Chamber, saying that the English fleet need not be 
feared, that Charles had only sent a few ships to in- 
troduce Episcopacy in New England. All efforts 
were therefore relaxed, and a few days later the 
Director set out for Albany, on official business, but 
before he could finish it, a messenger, spurring in 
hot haste, reached him with news that NicoUs had 
left Boston for New Amsterdam, and that the city 
was in hourly expectation of an attack. It would 
be interesting could we analyze the emotions of the 
Director in the mad gallop back to his capital, which 
followed. Probably rage that both he and the Am- 
sterdam Chamber had been so cleverly duped by the 
caitiff Englishman was the ruling passion. Twenty- 
four hours after reaching home, as he walked the 
fort parapet, he saw the red-cross flag of St. George 
gleam in the lower bay, and caught the dim outlines 
of the Guinea moving up through the mist. Evi- 
dently the threatened English invasion was near. 

Stuyvesant's faults were those of a soldier. He 
had also the virtues of a soldier: bravery, energy, 
and decision of character were among the latter. 
He at once determined to hold the town against all 
odds. And yet it seemed almost an act of madness. 
The fort at the Battery would protect only that 
point, and there was the town behind exposed to 
the enemy's frigates on both sides. He could mus- 



84 THE STORY OF' NEW YORIC. 

ter but four hundred men all told, and of these a 
number were Englishmen and not to be depended 
on. He had an uneasy feeling, too, that his own coun- 
trymen would willingly exchange his iron rule for 
that of the duke, if they could be assured of protec- 
tion. Nevertheless, he began active preparations to 
withstand a siege. Every third man was ordered to 
repair to the defences with spade, shovel, or wheel- 
barrow, which many refused to do. A guard was 
placed at the city gates ; the brewers were forbidden 
to make grain into malt ; the Director's slaves were 
set to thrashing grain at his farm, and conveying it 
to the fort. The frigates anchored in a cluster in 
the bay, and a messenger was despatched to Stuyve- 
sant with a summons to surrender. 

'* On this unexpected letter," say the burgomasters and 
schepens of New Amsterdam in their account of the 
capture to the West India Company dated September 
i6, 1664 — "On this unexpected letter the Heer Gen- 
eral sent for us to determine what was to be done in the 
matter. Whereupon it was resolved to send some com- 
missioners thither to argue the matter with the General 
and his three commissioners, who were so sent for this 
purpose twice, but received no answer except that they 
were not come here to dispute about it, but to execute 
their order and commission without fail . . . Three 
days' delay was demanded for consultation. That was 
duly allowed, but meanwhile they were not idle. They 
approached with their four frigates, two of which passed 
in front of the fort. The others anchored about Noo- 
ten (Governor's) Island, and sent five companies of 
soldiers who encamped themselves at the ferry opposite 



PETRUS STUVVESANT. 85 

this place (Fulton ferry, Brooklyn), together with a newly 
raised company of horse and a party of new soldiers both 
from the north (Connecticut) and Long Island, mostly all 
our deadly enemies, who expected nothing else than pill- 
age, plunder, and bloodshed, as men could perceive by 
their cursing and talking." 

NicoUs on his part performed his delicate mission 
with the tact of the accomplished soldier and courtier. 
On his arrival he issued a proclamation couched in 
the kindliest, most conciliatory terms, offering to 
every one who would submit, life, liberty, estate, 
and the fullest enjoyment of every right whether of 
person or property. These he scattered as fire- 
brands in the enemy's camp, and waited, hoping to 
secure the prize without incurring the odium of 
firing on a town filled with women and children. 
Meantime, while the commissioners were going to 
and fro, the city was in a ferment. There lay the 
frigates with the black muzzles of their guns looking 
on the town, — silent monitors. An inkling of Nicolls' 
proclamation had reached the people, and they clam- 
ored for submission. Stuyvesant sternly refused. 
The city fathers counselled delay, and an urging on of 
the preparations for defence, that better terms might 
be obtained. NicoUs' formal summons to surrender 
had been made on Saturday, August 30th. He had 
omitted to sign it, and it was returned that the in- 
formality might be remedied, thus giving the be- 
sieged precious time. All day Sunday men wrought 
on the defences. On Tuesday morning a row-boat 
left the fleet and approached the city. It contained 
six dignified gentlemen, men of mark, the command- 



86 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

ing figure of Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, 
whom Stuyvesant had met in council and at fete 
during his memorable visit to Hartford, being con- 
spicuous. They were met at the wharf with stately 
courtesy, a salute was fired in their honor, and they 
were conducted to the City Hall, where Stuyvesant 
and his council were waiting to receive them. Win- 
throp broached his mission, which was to deliver a 
letter from Colonel NicoUs, and to urge the Director 
to give over a hopeless struggle, and submit to the 
English. Many weighty arguments were advanced 
with the persuasive eloquence for which the elder 
Winthrop was famous, but all in vain. The lion- 
hearted Director would defend the city to the last. 
On taking leave Winthrop left the letter from Colonel 
Nicolls. Unsealing it Stuyvesant read : 

" Mr. Winthrop: — As to those particulars you spoke to 
me, I do assure you that if the Manhadoes be delivered 
up to his Majesty, I shall not hinder but that any people 
from the Netherlands may freely come and plant there, 
or thereabouts ; and such vessels of their own country 
may freely come thither, and any of them may as freely 
return home in vessels of their own country, and this and 
much more is contained in the privilege of his Majesty's 
English subjects ; and thus much you may, by what 
means you please, assure the Governor, from. Sir, 
" Your very affectionate servant, 

" Richard Nicolls." 

It was a very timely and politic document. The 
burgomasters at once asked that it be read to the citi- 
zens, who had gathered en masse outside to hear the 
result of the conference, but Stuyvesant feared its 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 8/ 

effect on them, and refused; a wordy quarrel en- 
sued ; at last the Director, in a burst of passion, tore 
the offending letter to pieces, whereupon Cornells 
Steenwyck condemned this violence in no measured 
terms, and with his fellow-officials quitted the place. 
The people received the news with suppressed rage, 
and covert threats, and presently deputed three 
prominent citizens to call on the Director and de- 
mand the paper. The fragments were shown them, 
but they demanded the letter. Stuyvesant himself 
appeared before the people, and tried to reason with 
them, but his voice was drowned in clamorous 
shouts for the letter. '' That," said Stuyvesant, 
*' was addressed to the officers of the government, 
and does not concern the commonalty " ; but the 
people could not be pacified, and, amid bitter curses 
against the company and himself, the Director with- 
drew and shut himself up in the fort, while Nicholas 
Bayard, like the accomplished courtier that he was, 
joined the torn fragments of the letter, and there- 
upon made a copy which he read to the people, and 
thus partially appeased them. Still the murmuring 
was deep and loud. 

" Why should we fight for the governor and com- 
pany ? " we can fancy them saying. *' He has always 
treated us as children and slaves, and the company 
has regarded us as a mere trading post for the filling 
of its coffers. The English colonies have had much 
better treatment. Look at Connecticut on the east. 
What a liberal charter ! There the people elect their 
own governors and councils ; make their own laws. 
And Maryland on the south. No man there was 



88 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

ever persecuted for conscience' sake ; every man has 
equal rights as respects property, reUgion, and the 
suffrage. Why should we fight to sustain a despot- 
ism, and expose our property to ruin and our fami- 
lies to violence ? " 

So they reasoned. Meantime Stuyvesant was bus- 
ily penning a letter in reply to Nicolls, in which 
he gave an exhaustive account of the Dutch dis- 
covery and right to Manhattan, and emphasized 
their claims to it. This he sent by four of his 
wisest councillors. But Nicolls declined argument. 
" He stood on no question of right," he said. "If 
his terms were not accepted he must carry out his 
orders and attack." The delegates still wished to 
argue the matter, but Nicolls refused. " On Thurs- 
day I shall speak with you at the Manhattans," he 
said significantly. He was told that he would be 
welcome if he came in a friendly manner. " I shall 
come with my ships and soldiers," was the reply, 
*' and he will be a bold messenger who will dare to 
come on board and solicit terms." "" What then is 
to be done?" asked one. '' Hoist the white flag of 
peace at the fort, and I may take something into 
consideration." They entreated that the ships 
should not fire upon the city without warning, 
but he denied their request that the troops should 
not be brought up nearer the city. '' To-day I shall 
arrive at the Ferry," he added ; " to-morrow we can 
agree with one another." On the 25th of August 
(old style) he landed three companies of regulars at 
Gravesend, and marched at their head to the Brook- 
lyn Ferry, where the Connecticut and Long Island 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 89 

volunteers were already massed. At the same time 
two frigates sailed up and cast anchor off Governor's 
Island. A little later the other two came up under 
full sail, with their ports open, and guns shotted, 
ready to pour in a broadside if opposition was made, 
and so ran past the fort, and came to anchor in the 
river above. Stuyvesant stood on the ramparts as 
they came on, feeling that the crisis had come. No 
doubt he remembered Governor Risingh and Fort 
Christina. Then he was the piper, and the poor 
Swedes danced ; now the terms were reversed. As 
the ships came on, the old soldier's ardor was aroused, 
and he would have ordered his gunners to fire, but at 
the critical moment good Domine Megapolensis laid 
his hand upon his shoulder. '^ It is madness," said 
he; ''what can our twenty guns do in the face of 
the sixty-two pointed toward us on yonder frigates? 
Will you be the first to shed blood? " So the ships 
sailed by without testing the calibre of the Dutch 
guns. Once past, however, the governor's resolution 
returned, and taking one hundred men he hurried up 
into the city to resist any attempt of the foe to land. 
But there he was met with a remonstrance signed by 
ninety-three of the leading citizens, including the city 
magistrates and the clergy, urging him to accept the 
terms of the English and save the city from sack. 
Women and children came to him and begged him 
with tears to save them from violence. At last the 
grim veteran, hero of a hundred battles, gave way. 
" I had rather be carried to my grave," he said, but 
finally he ordered the white flag raised above the fort. 
And thus peaceably fell New Amsterdam in the year 
of our Lord 1664. 



90 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

The articles of capitulation were agreed on next 
morning. There were twenty-four of them, and 
they embodied in substance the terms made known 
by Nicolls in his proclamations and conversations 
with the Dutch delegates. Never were more favor- 
able terms offered a conquered people. Citizens of 
every nationality were to be secured in person, 
property, customs, and religion. Free intercourse 
with Holland was to continue. The public build- 
ings and records were to remain intact, and public 
officers were to hold over until the time came for a 
new election. For himself and his soldiers Stuyve- 
sant asked much the same terms as he had granted 
to Governor Risingh under exactly similar condi- 
tions. They were to march out carrying their arms, 
with drums beating, colors flying, and matches 
lighted, and embark on the vessel which was to 
convey them to Holland. This programme was 
fully carried out on Monday, September 8th. As 
Stuyvesant and his troops marched out, the forces 
of Nicolls and Carr entered the town and raised 
their " meteor flag" over the fort and public build- 
ings. In the council-chamber the grave burgo- 
masters and schepens proclaimed Nicolls Governor 
of the province. The fort was rechristened James, 
in honor of the duke, and the province was named 
New York for the same reason. Rensselaerwyck 
and the forts on the South River soon yielded, and 
thus, without bloodshed, England secured the whole 
wide territory of New Netherlands — a territory, it is 
but just to add, which she had always claimed, and 
to which she was clearly entitled by the law of 



PETRUS STUYVESANT. 



91 



nations. The United Provinces exclaimed loudly 
against the injustice of the seizure, and waged a 
long and bloody war with England on account of it, 
quite ignoring the fact that they had committed a 
precisely similar act in driving the friendly Swedes 
from Fort Christina, on the sole plea that they had 
settled on territory claimed by the Dutch. The 
grim old Director, too, was harshly blamed for 




stuyvesant's house. 

yielding up the fort — as if he had not for the last 
five years, by every ship that sailed, importuned the 
half-moribund company to send him men and muni- 
tions of war to put it in a proper trim for a siege. 
Stuyvesant went to Amsterdam and made an able 
defence of his course. Afterwards, as all his family 
and property interests were in New York, he re- 
turned, and, taking up his residence at his bouwery 
or country-seat, he lived there, for several years, an 



92 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

active and useful life, though studiously refraining 
from politics. His estate was a large one and cost 
him sixty-four hundred guilders. Its fields, sloping 
down to the East River, were kept in the highest 
state of cultivation and stocked with the finest breeds 
of horses, cattle, and sheep. He had there a large, 
roomy house of Dutch architecture, with square 
stone chimneys and diamond-paned windows, which 
was burned in 1777, to the city's permanent loss. It 
was surrounded by flower-gardens and orchards of 
peach-, pear-, and apple-trees, in which the owner 
took great delight. One of his pear-trees was for 
many years a landmark of the city. Stuyvesant 
brought it from Holland on his return, and set it 
out in his garden. The tree lived and flourished for 
two hundred years ; and when the city streets were 
laid out through its ancient home, found itself ex- 
actly on the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third 
Avenue. There it burgeoned and fruited for many a 
year, never asking a penny for the golden fruit it 
strewed to the people so generously. At last it fell, 
and its clean, firm wood was cut up into mementos, 
and is treasured in scores of city homes to-day. 
Governor Stuyvesant died in 1672, and was buried 
in the family vault in the chapel built by himself on 
his farm, and which stood exactly where St. Mark's 
Church now stands, the original tablet of the 
vault being built into the east wall of the church. 
He whom it commemorates was a strong, heroic 
figure, and one may not pass it by without a thrill 
at the contrast between the city of to-day and that 
which struggled upward under his iron reign. 



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V. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



If in preceding chapters we have touched but 
lightly on the social and domestic life of the col- 
onists, it was not because we deemed it unimpor- 
tant) but from a desire to give the reader a clear and 
graphic sketch of the founding of New York and of 
the events which, like the stairway of some noble 
temple, led up to its settlement. But few social 
amenities were possible to the early settlers. The 
Rev. Jonas Michaelis, the first pastor, in a letter to 
" his beloved brother in Christ and kind friend," 
Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, of Holland, gives a graph- 
ic account of the trials and hardships which beset 
the first pioneers. His letter is dated ''Island of 
Manhata in New Netherlands, the i6th of August, 
1628." At the first celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
he says, they had full fifty communicants — Wal- 
loons and Dutch. The Sacrament was administered 
once in four months " until a larger number of peo- 
ple should otherwise require." The natives he found 
entirely savage and wild. 

" Strangers to all decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as 

93 



94 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

posts, proficient in all wickedness and godlessness, devil- 
ish men who serve nobody but the devil — that is, the 
spirit which in their language they call Manetto, . . . 
They have so much witchcraft, divination, sorcery, and 
wicked tricks, that they cannot be held in by any bands 
or locks. They are as thievish and treacherous as they 
are tall, and in cruelty they are more inhuman than the 
people of Barbary, and far exceed the Africans." 

Servants were scarce, except Angola slaves, which 
were '' thievish, lazy, and useless trash," and there 
were no horses, cows, or laborers to be had for 
money. The rations given out at the company's 
store, and " charged for high enough," were hard, 
stale food, such as was used on shipboard, and fre- 
quently '' this was not good." The Indians brought 
in fish and flesh of various kinds, but unless one had 
wares, such as knives, beads, and the like, or wam- 
pum, one could not buy. From this letter we learn 
that in 1628 the colonists felled much wood for 
father-land, that they had a grist-mill, and were 
building a windmill, and a " fort of good quarry 
stone " ; that they baked brick, burned lime from 
oyster-shells, made salt by evaporating sea-water, 
and had tried to make potash from wood-ashes with- 
out success. '' The country is good and pleasant," 
the letter concluded, '^ the climate healthy notwith- 
withstanding the sudden changes of cold and heat." 

At the time of which we now write, however — the 
close of the Dutch dynasty, — New Amsterdam had 
become a city with many of the comforts and refine- 
ments of civilization. Perhaps we can best depict 
the people's daily life by inviting the reader to join 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



95 



us in a stroll through the city — the time a clear, cool 
September day in 1663. Shall we enter by this arched 
gate-way at Broadway and Wall Street, or by the 
** Water Gate," at the point where Wall Street now 
meets the East River front? The latter. Then we 
will take the river road leading through fine old forests 




BLOCK-HOUSE AND CITY GATE. 



from what is now Fulton Ferry into the city. At 
what is now Maiden Lane we come upon a footpath 
leading west toward Broadway, and skirting the 
shores of several clear-water ponds whose outlet is 
a little brook purling down to the East River; and 
here we come upon a pretty scene — a bevy of maid- 
ens with bare, dimpled arms, some washing linen in 



96 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the ponds, others spreading it to dry on the green 
sward of the hill on the west. The path has been 
made by these maidens and their mothers, from 
which circumstance it is called Maagde Paatje — 
maidens' path, which when the English came to 
name the street was changed to Maiden Lane. 

Chatting over the pastoral scene we ride on, and 
a few moments later, at the present line of Wall 
Street, come upon a blank wall of palisades, stretch- 
ing quite across the island to the Hudson. As in- 
telligent strangers we stop and survey the scene with 
interest. On the left, where the wall abuts on the 
water front, is a square block-house pierced for mus- 
ketry, and beyond, built out into the water, a little 
half-moon battery of two guns, with a sentinel in 
gray blouse and baggy breeches patrolling it. Before 
us is an arched gate-way, the key of the arch gro- 
tesquely carved and surmounted with a carved cupola 
and gilded weathercock. The wall is of palisades — 
beams of wood twelve feet high, imbedded three 
feet deep in the earth, sharpened at the upper end, 
and strengthened by planks nailed transversely. 
There are block-houses at intervals, and chcvaiix 
de frise of stumps with the roots upturned, and we 
find on entering that it is defended within by a sod 
rampart and by a fosse or ditch. A good-natured 
burgher whom we accost tells us that the wall is 
2,340 feet long and cost 3,166 guilders, and that it 
was built in 1653, when the people feared an attack 
from the Indians and English. 

A broad lane 100 feet wide flanks the wall as far as 
Broadway, and is lined on the south side with rude 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE, 



97 



wooden cabins— the quarter of the chimney-sweeps 
and low tapsters. Numbers of the former— ragged, 
soot-begrimed urchins — swarm upon us with their 
cry of " Sweep ho ! " and fight and scramble for 
the handful of farthings we dispense, until at length 
the burgher falls upon them with his cane, and drives 
them screaming to their dwellings. Meantime we 
have been riding slowly down the water-front, 
examining each object with the curious eye of one 
new to the place and people. The odd, half-moon 




RIVER AND DOCK FRONT. 

docks, with placid, very fat burghers seated on them, 
fishing and smoking; the quaint buildings with 
peaked, many-storied roofs, dwellings above and 
stores beneath ; the great stone Stadt Huys, or City 
Hall, with its gallows in front, the Indian canoes 
and the shipping in the river, all amuse and interest 
us. The city dock, shown on the left of the picture, 
with a vessel inside its piers, is at this moment a 
busy place. 

This dock was the first built on Manhattan, the 



98 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

pioneer of our thirty miles or more of wharves. The 
merchants call it the " Hooft," and the river in 
front the " Roadstead." It is a busy place, as we 
have said. A fleet of scows is plying back and forth 
between the dock, and the great, clumsy, high- 
pooped ships anchored in the roadstead. These 
boats are laden with various articles, according to 
the cargoes of the ships they are discharging. For 
instance, one from a " Holland ship " carries dry- 
goods, hardware, and groceries of all sorts, with 
some of those " cow calves " and " ewe milk sheep " 
that formed so large a part of early Dutch imports. 
Another from a Virginia " ketch " is laden with hogs- 
heads of tobacco. A third brings dried fish and 
English goods from the Snow just arrived from Bos- 
ton. A fourth is laden with savage, repulsive-looking 
African negroes from the slave ship White Horse, 
last from the coast of Angola, on their way to the 
slave market to be sold at public auction. A pinke 
from Barbadoes is loading a fifth scow with barrels 
of sugar and hogsheads of molasses, while the 
patroon of Rensselaerwyck's sloop — yacht the 
burghers call it — is sending ashore bales of costly 
furs — beaver, otter, mink, and others, — and a galley 
from Curagoa costly dyestuffs, fruits, and other 
tropical products. Gangs of negro slaves are on the 
dock receiving the goods. One of these gangs, the 
strangers learn, is owned by Cornells Steenwyck, a 
second by Pieter Cornelissen Vanderveen, a third by 
Isaac AUerton, and a fourth by Govert Loockerman, 
the four greatest merchants of New Amsterdam at 
this time, and the four are there in their baggy 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 99 

breeches and blue-cloth coats with silver buttons, to 
see that no thievery or unthrift is practised. Indeed, 
so careful is Cornelis Steenwyck, that he has a negro 
woman with needle and thread following him about 
to sew up any rents in bags or bales that have been 
consigned to him. A part of the bales, barrels, and 
hogsheads are rolled across the street into the mer- 
chants' warehouses, but the bulk of them are carted 
off to the five great stone warehouses of the com- 
pany between the present Bridge and Stone Streets. 
Vessels were not then allowed to come to the dock for 
two reasons : first, to prevent smuggling ; and, sec- 
ond, to keep the sailors on board their ships, as com- 
manded by a city ordinance. 

A guide-board off Coenties Slip warns vessels of 
fifty tons or under not to anchor between that board 
and the Battery under a heavy penalty. Another 
near the present Fulton Ferry forbids any vessel to 
anchor above that point. Quite a fleet of vessels are 
swinging at anchor between the two points, and we 
find ourselves studying with interest the names 
painted in quaint letters on their sterns. There is 
the Little Fox and the Little Crane, pioneer ships in 
the Manhattan trade, the Herring, man-of-war, 
armed with two metal guns, sixteen iron, and two 
stone guns, the Flower of Guilder, the Sea Mew, Or- 
ange Tree, Three Kings, Blue Cock, New Nether land's 
Fortune, Black Eagle, Great Christopher^ Pear Tree^ 
King Solomon, New N ether land Lndian, Morning Star, 
and others. As we stand viewing the scene, old 
Gilles de Voocht, the haven-master, making his 
round of the wharves, draws near, and we address 



lOO THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

him. '^ Aye," he replies, " a rare fleet, driven in 
mostly by the last noreaster. D 'ye mind the Hope, 
there ? a fine craft, a regular Amsterdam liner. Her 
skipper, Julian Blanck, was the first sea-captain to 
build a house in New Netherlands ; the Nezv Ain- 
sterdam, yonder is another regular packet, Captain 
Adrian Bloemmaert. Her consort, the Prince Mau- 
rice, was lost on Fire Island beach in 1659 ; not the 
last ship, I warrant thee, to lay her bones on those 
devilish sands. A pretty craft, is she not ? The 
patroon's yacht yonder plies between New Amster- 
dam, Sopus, and Fort Orange (Albany). She will 
take thee qiiite to Orange for ten florins. She hath 
a gun on the deck forward hung on a pivot, and her 
skipper may by law suffer fine and imprisonment if 
he keep not a strict watch on the way both against 
the Tankitikes and Wequaegeseeks, the Mohawks, 
and Mohegans." 

We are about leaving the dock when a commotion 
arises, and looking up we see that the flag on the fort 
flagstaff has been hoisted to the mast-head, which 
means that a Holland ship is in the offing. To 
modern Manhattanese such an event seems a trifle, 
but to the ship and to the burghers of that day it was 
a great event. To the former it meant the end of an 
eight weeks' voyage, a tedious course by the Canaries 
and Guiana, the Caribbees and Curagoa, Bahamas 
and Bermudas. To the people it meant news from 
home — of fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, chil- 
dren ; it meant the news of the day — whatever had 
been done abroad for the last two months in war, 
politics, science, art, or religion ; it meant to the 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



lOI 



merchants news of ventures, fate of argosies. Even 
while we look scores of boats filled with men, 
eager for news, put off and urge their way toward 
the ship, while the populace throng the Battery 
and welcome the new-comer with cheers and wav- 
ing of hats and handkerchiefs. By and by a single 
gun thunders from the fort. The vessel rounds to 




BROAD STREET, 1 663. 

off the Battery, the naval master boards her, inspects 
manifests and papers, and she is then allowed to pro- 
ceed to her anchorage and to transfer her passengers 
in boats to the shore. 

In our leisurely progress we next halt on the 
arched stone bridge spanning the canal at Broad 



I02 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Street, and look up that thoroughfare. It is well 
built up with solid stone and brick houses having 
checker-work fronts and quaint crow-step gables, as 
seen in the engraving, and right through the centre 
of the street runs a canal, with houses and the trav- 
elled way on either side. The homesick burghers 
must have something to remind them of father-land, 
so they have widened and deepened the bed of a 
brook that originally flowed through the street, 
planked its sides, and formed a canal navigable for 
boats, skiffs, and canoes, and very useful to the 
farmers and Indians who are wont to land there 
with loads of produce and game for the markets 
in the vicinity. 

Let us now turn into Whitehall Street and ride 
slowly up to our tavern, which stands near the point 
where that street debouches on the Bowling Green. 
Whitehall was then the patrician quarter of the city. 
Stuyvesant's town mansion stood at its foot, being 
known far and wide as " the White Hall," and giving 
the street its name. On its northern side were rows 
of quaint Dutch houses such as have been described, 
and that looked down on the Battery and beyond 
over the sparkling bay. Behind each house was a 
garden aglow with flowers, and still behind that an 
orchard well stocked with apple, peach, plum, pear, 
quince, and apricot trees ; for the old chroniclers all 
agree that at this period the fruit and flower gardens 
of the New Amsterdam far outrivalled the old. Tall 
oaks and chestnuts, spared from the native forests, 
pelt us with glossy brown nuts as we pass, while 
squirrels, red and gray, chatter in their tops. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. IO3 

By and by we come to the inn. It is a tall, two- 
story structure of Holland brick, with checker-work 
cornices, and at each gable an immense chimney of 
Manhattan blue stone, which bears, in clumsy iron 
figures, the date of its erection. There are the usual 
crow-step gables, and in addition, three long, narrow 
windows in the roof, the upper surface of each flush 
with the ridge-pole, the whole much resembhng 
those curious structures built by the wasp on the 
interiors of barns and out-buildings in summer days. 
Projecting over the street is a wide, brick-floored, 
vine-covered stoep, or porch, furnished with wooden 
benches, while a long wooden arm extending over 
the street suspends a creaking sign-board, on which, 
in the guise of a very fat bow-legged Dutchman, is 
painted Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Old and 
New Amsterdam. 

As soon as we draw rein, the host, worthy Martm 
Cregier, president of the burgomasters and captain 
of the burgher guard, appears at the door to wel- 
come us, while an hostler holds our stirrups, for the 
inn prides itself on being able properly to entertain 
distinguished guests. Governors of the neighboring 
colonies, commissioners seeking the Dutch city to 
settle vexed questions of boundaries or runaway 
slaves, titled visitors from abroad, military and naval 
officers, great merchants, Virginia cavaliers, book- 
making travellers,-in fact, every visitor of quality 
seeking the city, is at once referred to the mn of 
Burgomaster Cregier. We will pass through the 
two-leaved oaken door into the wide hall. On 
one side is the parlor or drawing-room, with oiled 



104 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

floor and cumbersome Dutch furniture ; on the other, 
the great public room of the inn. We look curi- 
ously about. The floor is sprinkled with fine white 
sand brought in the *' Vlie boats " from Coney Island, 
and done into many quirls and curlacues by Gretch- 
en's broom. On the walls are hung deers' antlers, 
serving as racks, on which rests the long goose gun 
of the landlord and the fire-arms of his guests. There 
is also a great cupboard in the corner, well filled 
with decanters, glasses, and black bottles of ancient 
Hollands and rare old Madeira, and near it a rack 
stuck full of long pipes, each inscribed with the name 
of the owner. The tap-room opens off from the 
apartment in the rear. This public room is a sort of 
meeting-place or exchange for the merchants and 
gentry of the town — a club-house where they meet 
to hear and retail the news and discuss new ventures 
and projects. Two stout merchants are already there 
seated at a little table, drinking Sopus beer and 
smoking contemplatively. Placards quite cover the 
walls, and we have noticed many on the doors and 
sides of the buildings and on street corners as we 
passed. One, as we read, gives us a vivid idea of the 
iron rule of the Director. 

" Item. Tavern-keepers and tapsters, from now hence- 
forward, shall not sell, barter, nor give as a present either 
by the first, second, or third hand, nor provide the natives 
with any beer, wine, brandy, or spirituous liquors, on 
pain of forfeiting their business, and an arbitrary cor- 
rection at the discretion of the Judge. 

"'Item. To prevent all fightings and mischiefs, they shall 
be obliged to notify the officer immediately in case any one 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 1 05 

be wounded or hurt at their house, on pain of forfeiting 
their business, and one pound Flemish for every hour 
after the wound or hurt has been inflicted, and is con- 
cealed by the tapster or tavern-keeper. 

'^ Item. The ordinances heretofore published against un- 
reasonable night revelling and immoderate drinking on the 
Sabbath, shall be observed with more strict attention and 
care by the tavern-keepers and tapsters, to wit : that they 
shall not admit nor entertain any company in the evening 
after the ringing of the farmer's bell, nor sell, nor furnish 
beer or liquor to any person — travellers and boarders 
alone excepted — on the Sunday before three o'clock in 
the afternoon when divine service is finished, under the 
penalty thereto affixed by law." 

And on another placard, this bounty : 

" Whereas, we are informed of the great ravages the 
wolf commits on the small cattle ; therefore, to animate 
and encourage the proprietors who will go out and shoot 
the same, we have resolved to authorize the assistant 
Schout and Schepens to give public notice that whoever 
shall exhibit a wolf to them which hath been shot on this 
island, on this side Haarlem, shall be promptly paid 
therefor by them, for a wolf fl. 20, and for a she-wolf 
fl. 30 in wampum or the value thereof." 

As the sun sinks behind the noble forest trees that 
line Broadway, we sit with other guests on the stoep, 
where pipes and spiced sangaree are brought us by 
neat-handed Phillis. Looking down the line of 
Whitehall Street, we see on every stoep beautiful 
women and staid, bearded men, the former laughing 
and chatting among themselves or with acquaint- 
ances who, strolling by, stop for an exchange of 



I06 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

friendly gossip ; the latter stolidly smoking their 
pipes. We view the moving panorama before us 
with undisguised interest. Down on the fort the 
sentry paces his beat. Lovers, two by two, stroll 
by and out on the Battery Green. We can but be 
impressed by the beauty of the maidens, who, in- 
deed, are celebrated on foreign shores. Carriages 
filled with ladies and gentlemen roll by, and anon 
the governor's coach, with the richly dressed ladies 
of his family within, bowing and smiling. Nor are 
the commonalty absent. There are laborers in long 
toil-stained frocks, bare-armed peasant-girls in waist 
and short gown, turbaned wenches market bent, 
herdsmen guiding sheep and cattle to the weekly 
fair, goatherds driving in their flocks to be milked, 
and outlandish carts, drawn indifferently by horses, 
donkeys, and oxen, bringing to market the produce 
of the outlying farms. Anon comes a band of Indians, 
in single file, moving stolidly, lookingneither to right 
nor left, and clad in array capable of moving even 
Motley to laughter. One wears a blanket only ; 
another sports a doublet of bear-skin ; his fellow a 
coat of raccoon skins ; and, to complete the grotesque 
array, the last is clad in a long mantle made of the 
feathers of the wild turkey. The party bear between 
them two fine bucks, a brace of wild turkeys, and 
quarters of a bear, and we at once place them as a 
hunting party coming to market with the fruits of 
the chase. By and by, in the stone church within 
the fort, a bell tolls ponderously — one, two, three — 
up to nine, — the curfew bell, called by the people the 
" Farmer's bell," probably because at that time the 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. I07 

city gates were closed, and none might return to their 
homes without. As its last notes cease, the lights 
fade from the stores and houses, the streets become 
silent, and soon New Amsterdam is lost in slumber. 
At the same moment Phillis comes to show us to our 
rooms. She leads the way to a large square room 
overhead, and in its smooth partition wall lets down 
a sort of trap-door, which discloses an opening with- 
in like a cupboard, in which are placed two great, 
soft, downy feather-beds. She sets down the tallow 
dip and departs, whereupon we disrobe and pop 
into the cupboard between the feather-beds. Phillis 
then returns, closes the door, and removes the light, 
leaving the guest to sleep peacefully in his box until 
morning. As there are several of these cupboards 
in the guest-chamber, the economy in room of Dutch 
sleeping arrangements is apparent. 

We spend many succeeding days wandering about 
the city. The Bowling Green pleases us most. It 
is the " Common " laid out by the City Fathers, 
at an early day, in memory of the village green 
of father-land, the scene of public rejoicings and 
festivities, the parade of the military, and treaty 
ground of the Indians. Schoolboys are playing 
there on the morning we first visit it, and dozens of 
cute little blackamoors are trudging back and forth 
carrying water from the town pump next the fort. 
Now and then Gretchen comes with sleeves rolled 
above her elbows, and stout ankles visible beneath 
her scant skirt. One day, as we sit beneath a tow- 
ering elm, we are joined by a lean and withered old 
man in clerical garb — long black coat, black small- 



I08 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

clothes, and black stock, — whom we soon discover 
to be Jan Gillertsen, the " koeck," or bell-ringer. 
He sits down and converses with us in the grave 
and formal language of the day, in the course of 
which we learn that he had been once bell-ringer in 
the Great Kirk at the Hague, with its carillon of 
thirty bells, and that love for his daughter, the fair, 
blue-eyed Judith, wife to one of the city merchants, 
had brought him thither. By and by he invites us 
up into his chamber, beneath the belfry of the church 
in the fort. Over the door are carved these words : 

(il^is Ijoln tdl 

|s i)ebitat£i) to i\i ^0it of ^eaa. 

OTlje foot of foar \\z\izi profaiub ibis floor, 

^or Jiollj torallj \tit Iriitlj Ijis tontenlioits boite 

giffrigbl i\tu bmlbings. Cl)aritii foitlj prager, 

Pitmililg foitlj abstinena, combinrb, 

g^re \nt i\t gxtarbians of a saintlg ntinb. 

Within is a small octagonal chamber barely furnished 
with a pallet, a large round claw-footed table, a few 
chairs, a quaintly carved cabinet, which contains, 
besides the church plate, some old black-letter tomes 
and illuminated missals. There are besides several 
engravings of scriptural scenes on the wall, an hour- 
glass, and a fine old Nuremberg clock. The bell- 
rope comes through the ceiling from the belfry 
overhead, and the flutter of bats and owls in the 
chamber above easily suggests the presence of un- 
canny spirits. The old koeck held a grave office. 

" He was," says one, " like him set upon a watch-tower 
of whom the prophet speaks. The city could not well go 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 109 

on without him. He rang the laborers to their tasks, 
and at night called them to their firesides. He sum- 
moned the magistrates to court, the schoolmaster to his 
classes, the condemned to his doom. He rang the merry 
marriage peal, the Christmas chimes, tolled for the dead 
and the solemn funeral, and at nine his bell gave over the 
city to silence and slumber. On the Sabbath he called 
men to worship their Maker ; and day by day, in the 
belfry, he watched for the devouring flame ' that might, 
God letting, destroy the city." 

Another grizzly old mustache whom we some- 
times find beneath the elm is the old trumpeter of 
Stuyvesant's men-at-arms. He has clean-cut features 
and a sardonic countenance, and when he stands 
erect it is with the inches and the air of a grenadier. 
He is full of martial recollections. 

" Many a year is buried since I came," he begins. " It 
was in the year 1645. I remember it well, for in that 
year our Director, Kieft, held on the parade yonder his 
great council with the chiefs of the wild men. Verily 
they came in grand array— the chiefs, six of them, 
Oritany, who spoke for the Hackingsacks ; and Sesse- 
kennick and Willem, chiefs of the Tappaans ; and Rech- 
gawanak, Pacham, and Pennekeck, who spoke for the 
Onany; Majanwettenemin, Marechawick, and Nyack, 
and Aepjen, chief of the Mohegans, who stood for the 
Wappinecks, the Wechquaesqueecks, the Sing Sings, and 
the Kicktawanks. These came in brave array, as I 
said, in their head-dresses of turkeys' feathers, and robes 
of dressed deer's hide, stuck full of eagle quills, with 
priceless belts of wampum about their necks and ankles ; 
and they sat in a half circle on the green, while the Direc- 



no THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

tor and his councillors, likewise clad in their bravest, sat 
down to fill out the other half. Then the pipe of peace 
went around to all, and the great treaty was signed, after 
seven years of war. Afterward the Director thought it 
seemly to ask the chiefs to a great banquet in the burgo- 
master's tavern, whereat the Hollands, being ripe and 
ready, and more potent in heathen stomachs than in our 
own, the chiefs forsooth were put to bed in the inn, like 
babies ; yet had they the grace next morning to be 
heartily ashamed, and did hasten to put many miles 
of forest and river between themselves and the white 
man's fire-water." 

This tale being exceedingly well received, the old 
soldier is led to tell another. 

" I saw a braver sight here, however, under our present 
puissant Director, whom may the Lord God protect. It 
was on that Sunday he sailed for his happy victory over 
the Swedes, in 1655. After the sermon the burgher 
guard, seven hundred valiant men, mustered at the fort. 
At roll of drum they gathered before their colors, fully 
armed with both hand and side arms, their bandeleers 
well filled with powder and ball, their muskets properly 
loaded and provided with rests. Then they deployed 
upon the parade for inspection, while the whole town 
gazed, and the women pitied the caitiff Swedes. At last, 
preceded by drummers and trumpeter, the army marched 
up the ' Heere Straat ' as far as the tavern of Wolfert 
Webber, who did refresh them with cakes and ale, after 
which they marched back, and went on board the fleet, 
which quickly bore them from our sight." 

From the Parade we will enter and inspect the 
fort. It is a quadrangular earthwork, defended by 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE, 



III 



bastions faced with stone, on which are mounted 
twenty-two of the wide-mouthed guns of the day — 
bombards, culverins, serpentines, etc. These are of 
brass or bronze, and use stone as well as iron balls 
for missiles. The interior, or '^ parade," is a plain sur- 
face one hundred and fifty feet square, in the centre of 




THE BATTERY IN 1663. 

which is planted a tall flag-staff with rounds for ascend- 
ing, and from which floats the orange, white, and 
blue flag of the West India Company. On the north- 
west bastion is the quaint wind-mill shown in the en- 
graving, its tower turning on a pivot, such as one may 
still see in Holland, and on the eastern shore of Albe- 
marle Sound in North Carolina. There is another 



112 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

windmill on the North River shore slightly differing 
in form. The most prominent object within the fort, 
however, is the church of " Manhattan stone," built 
by Kieft in 1642, with its two peaked roofs, between 
which "the tower loomed aloft," the same tower in 
which the koeck keeps his lonely vigils. A marble 
slab in the front wall of the church bears this in- 
scription in Dutch : Ao. Do. MDCXLII. W. Kieft, 
Dr. Gr. Huft de Gernester dese Tempel doen Bou- 
wen. {^' Anno Domini 1642. Wilhelm Kieft, Director 
General, hath the commonalty caused to build this 
temple.") 

The jail is on one side of the church, and the 
government house, a plain two-story structure of 
brick, also built by Kieft, on the other. Low 
stone barracks and storehouses complete the tale 
of buildings within the fort. Soldiers in gray jackets 
and baggy breeches are lounging about, and the 
towns-people with visiting friends promenade the 
ramparts, or form little groups on the parade — for 
the fort is the lion of the young city — the seat of 
government, the church, the signal station and the 
scene of all military evolutions and displays ; a 
beautiful spot, too, with its views of harbor, rivers, 
and wooded shores. Sunday comes ; we will attend 
church, being curious to know more of the people 
and their religious customs. Half-past ten finds us 
in the fort near the church, just as the first stroke of 
the bell sounds, so that the church-goers pass in re- 
view before us. They come in two great streams, 
one down Broadway, another up Whitehall, and 
meet at the fort gate, Bowling Green being soon 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. II3 

filled with the wagons and carts of country people, 
who have come from the green farms miles away, 
and out-span on the open spaces. 

It is a pretty sight, this company of church-goers, 
for though the age was in many respects crude and 
hard, in the beauty and variety of costume it far 
exceeded ours. The ladies' gowns are left open in 
front to display the quilted petticoat, which in these 
days is the most important article of female dress. 
It is of different materials — cloth, silk, satin, camlet, 
and grosgrain ; and of colors to suit the taste of the 
wearer, red, blue, black, and white predominating. 
They wear colored hose, and low shoes with high 
heels, and colored hoods of silk or taffeta, instead of 
bonnets. Their hair is frizzled and curled, and 
sprinkled with powder ; they wear gold and diamond 
rings, on their fingers, and gold lockets on their 
bosoms, but greater attention seems to have been 
paid to their Bibles and psalm-books, which are 
richly bound in gold and silver, and attached by gold 
chains to their girdles. The gentlemen are elegantly 
attired in the costume of father-land. Their heads 
are covered with soft-felt hats, with wide brims 
looped up with rosettes, and with powdered " full- 
bottom " wigs. Their long coats are adorned with 
silver buttons, and the capacious pockets trimmed 
with silver lace. In material, there is colored stuff, 
red, blue, and buff; black velvet, broadcloth, and 
silk. Their waistcoats, or doublets, are of velvet or 
cloth of brightest colors, and richly embroidered with 
silver lace. Their breeches, generally of the same 
material as their coats, end at the knee in black-silk 



114 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

stockings. Their shoes are low, and adorned with 
large silver buckles. 

The worshippers have nearly all passed in when 
a carriage drives up to the fort entrance, and Gover- 
nor Stuyvesant and his party alight. There is the 
Governor, his wife, and his widowed sister, Mrs. 
Bayard. The Governor bears himself with a military 
air, despite the wooden leg, bound with silver bands, 
which replaced the one lost in honorable fight at 
St. Martins. His wife, a beautiful French lady, 
daughter of a famous Parisian divine, is worshipped 
by the gentlemen for her beauty, and envied by all 
the ladies for the Parisian elegance of her toilettes. 
We will follow the Governor's party into the 
church. It is a plain, bare edifice, with a very high 
pulpit, and above that a huge sounding-board. 
Scarcely are we seated when the tall forms of 
the burgomasters and schepens in their black ofifi- 
cial robes appear, preceded by the koeck and his 
assistants bearing the cushions for the official 
pew. At the same time Domine Megapolensis 
enters by the chancel door. At the foot of the pul- 
pit stairs he pauses, and with hat raised before his 
face, offers a silent invocation, while the people bow 
before him. As he seats himself in the pulpit, the 
zeikintrooster rises, and, facing the congregation, 
reads the morning lesson. The service proceeds. 
When the good domine's sermon has exceeded the 
hour limit marked by the sands in the hour-glass 
before him, the zeikintrooster announces the fact by 
three raps of his cane, and the sermon is brought to 
an end. Then the koeck inserts the public notices 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 115 

to be read in the end of his mace, and hands them 
up to the minister. The reading being done, the 
deacons rise in their pews, while the domine deHvers a 
short homily on the duty of remembering the poor, 
and then pass through the congregation, each bearing 
a long pole, to which a black velvet bag with a little 
bell is suspended, to receive the alms of the charita- 
ble. Service over, the people disperse to their homes, 
and the poor schout-fiscal is relieved of his irksome 
task of patrolling the streets, wand of ofHce in hand, 
closing the doors of all tap-rooms, and chastising 
such negro slaves as he finds indulging in games, for 
although these people had holiday on Sunday, they 
were sternly prohibited from playing or gaming 
" during the hours of morning service." Having 
nothing better to do, we will follow one of the wagon 
parties which has come from the Walloon settlement 
on the Long Island shore — the nucleus of the pres- 
ent great city of Brooklyn. The wagon passes out 
of the water-gate before described, and along the 
river road to the ferry, which is near the present site 
of Fulton Ferry. There is a Httle house here — 
an open shed roofed with thatch, — a large flat- 
boat worked with sweeps, and several rude skiffs 
for conveying single passengers. A huge fish-horn 
hangs upon a tree near by, and seizing this, the Wal- 
loon blows a blast as loud as that which summoned 
Charlemagne at Roncesvalles. The old ferry-master 
and his slaves, away back in the forest, are a long 
time coming, and the traveller, to kill time, begins 
reading a placard which is affixed to the shed, and 
which, with many other rules and regulations, con- 



ii6 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



tains the primitive ferriage fees. We will jot them 
down : 



For each wagon or cart, with two horses or 
oxen ...... 

For one cart or wagon with one horse 
For one cart or plow .... 

For one pig, sheep, buck, or goat, — for two 
eight stivers, and what is above that each 
For every man, woman, Indian, or squaw 
For two or more persons, each one 
For a child under ten years, half fare. 
For one horse, or four-footed horned beast 
For one hogshead of tobacco 



Fl. Stivers. 



lO 



lO 

i6 

i6 

6 

6 

4 



For one tun of beer . . . . 

For an anker with wine or liquor 

For a tub of butter, soap, or such like 

For a mud (four bushels) of grain 

And what exceeds that is half a stiver per skeple. 
Packages of goods and other articles not specified herein, 
in proportion as parties shall agree. 

~ One of the items provided that the lessee should 
be bound to accommodate passengers in the summer 
only from five o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock 
in the evening, '' provided the windmill hath not 
taken in its sail." 

The ferry-boat is an hour crossing. When it 
comes clumsily up to the other shore we find there 
a ferry-house and tavern, and little else. The site of 
the second greatest city of the Union is still covered 
with forest. There are a few farms here and there 
in the sheltered hollows, and considerable villages at 
the Wallabout, Hempstead, and Flatbush, but the 
Heights are silent and solitary. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. WJ 

One day we saunter round to the city court, which 
holds its sessions in the Stadt Huys every Monday 
in the year, except that it takes a recess from De- 
cember 14th until three weeks after Christmas. It 
is ten minutes of nine. Citizens are wending their 
way toward the Stadt Huys. Solomon La Chair, 
the notary, comes arm and arm with his confrere, 
Van der Veere, each with his Marsenaer s Praxis in 
hand. On the green before the City Hall, caressing 
his " cat," loiters *' Big Pieter," the negro whipper 
and executioner. On the puy, or platform, on one 
side of the stoep stands a gray-haired old man, with 
a sort of skull-cap on his head and a bell in his hand — 
Stoffel Mighielsen, the town-crier. As we look he 
rings his bell three times, and reads a high-sounding 
proclamation from their High Mightinesses, the 
Director and Council at the fort. We will enter 
with the little stream of litigants and witnesses pour- 
ing in. It is a large square room, with the arms of 
New Amsterdam engraved on the lozenge-shaped 
window panes. Over the judge's bench are wreathed 
the orange, blue, and white colors of the West 
India Company, and the tricolor of father-land. On 
the bench are the stuffed red cushions we saw carried 
to the church on Sunday. The leather buckets kept 
by the city for putting out fires are hung on the 
sides of the room. Johannes Nevins, court secretary, 
is already at his desk turning the leaves of his book 
of minutes. On his right is a box containing the 
seal of New Amsterdam, on his left the half-hour 
glass which is turned precisely at nine, that all tardy 
members may be fined, — one half hour late, six 
stivers ; one hour late, twelve stivers ; and who- 



Il8 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

ever is wholly late, without reasonable excuse, forty 
stivers. Next to the secretary sits the Gerechts 
Boode, or court messenger. Pieter Schaffbauck, the 
jailer, is busy assigning seats to the visitors, and 
looks after a prisoner he has brought in from jail. 
There is one other court officer, Matthew de Vos, 
the bailiff, who is conversing with some clients. On 
a rack near by are the law books, the court armory, 
" The Placards, Ordinances, and Octroys of the 
Honorable, Great, and Mighty Lords of the States 
of Holland and West Friesland," *' Dutch Court 
Practice and Laws," the *' Practigke ende Hande 
Bouck in Crimineele Zoacken," by Dr. Van Brugghe, 
and others, heavy leather-bound tomes. Nine o'clock 
is struck. The court-house bell rings. Silence is 
proclaimed by the court messenger, and the judges 
enter at a side door in solemn procession, Nicasius 
de Sille leading, then the Heeren Burgomasters, 
Martin Cregier and Oloff Stevenson Cortlandt ; the 
schepens, Pieter Van Cowenhoven, Johannes Van 
Brugh, Jacob Kip, and Cornells Steenwyck. The 
court is opened by Domine Megapolensis, who 
arises and offers a long and impressive prayer, of 
which we will quote the more material portion. 

" We beseech Thee, O Fountain of all good gifts, 
qualify us by thy grace, that we may with fidelity and 
righteousness serve in our respective offices. To this 
end enlighten our darkened undei standings that we may 
be able to distinguish the right from the wrong, the 
truth from the falsehood, and that we may give pure and 
uncorrupted decisions ; having an eye upon thy word, 
a sure guide, giving to the simple wisdom and knowl- 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 1 19 

edge. Let thy law be a light unto our feet, and a lamp 
to our path, so that we may never turn away from the 
path of righteousness. Deeply impress on all our minds 
that we are not accountable unto men, but unto God, 
who seeth and heareth all things. Let all respect of 
persons be far removed from us, that we may award jus- 
tice unto the rich and the poor, unto friends and foes 
alike, to residents and to strangers according to the law 
of truth, and that not one of us may swerve therefrom. 
And since gifts do blind the eyes of the wise, and de- 
stroy the heart, therefore keep our hearts aright. Grant 
unto us also, that we may not rashly prejudge any one 
without a fair hearing, but that we patiently hear the 
parties, and give them time and opportunity for defend- 
ing themselves ; in all things looking up to thee for 
thy word and direction." 

Without further formality, the court proceeds to 
business. A large legal-appearing document, super- 
scribed " Worshipful, Right Beloved Schout, Burgo- 
masters, and Schepens of the City Amsterdam in 
New Netherland," is handed in by the court mes- 
senger, and opened by the schout, who reads : 

" Worshipful, Right Beloved : 

" Considering, on the one hand, God's manifold mer- 
cies and benefits which in his bounty he hath from time 
to time not only exhibited, but also continued to this 
budding province ; and on the other hand, the resolution 
and order of the supreme authority of this province, 
adopted and executed for the further benefit and secu- 
curity of this province : We, the Director General and 
Council of this province, have, above all things, deemed 
it necessary to order and prescribe a general day of 



I20 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving, which order we here- 
by send to your Worship, according to the form of 
our father-land, to the end that it shall be proclaimed 
and observed in your Worship's city, whereunto confiding 
we are, and remain, 

" Your Worship's good friends, 

" The Director General and 

" Council of New Netherland, 

"" P. Stuyvesant." 

The letter is ordered to be proclaimed from the 
puy after previous ringing of the bell. Several 
cases of assault, petty thieving, slander, and tapping 
on the Lord's Day are then disposed of, the schout- 
fiscal appearing as prosecuting attorney and examin- 
ing both prisoner and witnesses. At last the court 
comes to the case of Hend. Jansen Clarbout, on trial 
for a capital offence. 

The secretary reads the Herr Schout's demand 
against the prisoner, that the burgomasters and 
schepens vote each for himself for the conclusion of 
his sentence. The magistrates therefore write their 
judgment upon pieces of paper, which are collected 
by the secretary, who opens and reads them as 
follows : 

" The Herr Burgomaster, Martin Cregier — ' That he 
shall be whipped and branded, and banished for all his 
life out of the province of New Netherland.' 

'"'' The Herr Burgomaster, Oloff Stevenson Cortlandt — 
' Though he be worthy of death, yet from special grace 
he adjudges that he be whipped and branded and ban- 
ished.' 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 121 

" The Herr Schepen, Pieter Van Cowenhoven — ' He 
shall be put to death.' 

" The Herr Schepen Johannes Van Brugh ' decides 
that he shall be whipped and branded, and banished 

the country.' 

" The Herr Schepen Hend. J. Vander Vin— ' That the 
offender is worthy of death, and ought, according to the 
Herr Schout de Sille's demand, be punished until death 
follow, with the costs and mises of justice.' 

'' The Herr Schepen Jacob Kip—' The reasons being 
sufficiently discussed in complete court, and papers and 
confession being examined, he can, in conscience and 
conviction, not vote otherwise than that he, Hendrick 
Jansen Clarbout, ought according to law be executed by 

death.' 

"The Herr Schepen Cornells Steenwyck—' Decides 
that he be whipped and branded under the gallows, the 
halter being around his neck, and banished forever, and 
sent hence with his wife and children on pain of the 
gallows, thanking the magistrates on his bended knees 
for their merciful and well-deserved justice." 

After the reading of these, a second vote is taken, 
and it is decreed — 

"That the offender, Hendrick Jansen Clarbout, shall 
be brought to the place where justice is usually executed, 
and with the rope around his neck be whipped and 
branded, and banished the country, and condemned in 
the costs and mises of justice." 

" I now ask," said the schout, " that the Herr Presi- 
dent Burgomaster, Martin Cregier, and the Herr Schepen, 
Cornells Steenwyck, be appointed to wait on the Wor- 
shipful Director-General and Council to ask permission 



122 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

to erect a gallows before the City Hall, and for power to 
banish from the District of New Netherlands." 

The two messengers file slowly out and return 
in due time, bearing a written " apostille," which 
authorizes and qualifies the magistrates, for this 
time, not only to banish the apprehended Hendrick 
Jansen Clarbout beyond the city's jurisdiction, but 
also beyond the province of New Netherland ; *' and 
they are likewise permitted to allow a half gallozvs 
to be erected before the City Hall, should that be 
necessary for carrying the judgment into effect." 

With the concluding words the twelve great strokes 
of noon sound from the fort, and court is declared 
dismissed — dinner, with the burgomasters of New 
Amsterdam being a sacred office not lightly broken 
in upon by business or pleasure. 

After a time it becomes necessary for us to do a lit- 
tle shopping, and we are directed to the store of the 
Heer Schepen Cornells Steenwyck, the Macy's of 
New Amsterdam. The merchant we find a pleasant, 
agreeable man of the world, with a horizon much 
wider than most of his class. His career has been 
full of vicissitude. When quite a young man he had 
come to the city as mate of a trading vessel, and being 
smitten wath the charms of a merchant's daughter, had 
cast in his fortunes with the young city. ''The hand- 
some sailor," the ladies called him for years after his 
arrival. Perhaps for that reason they did most of 
their shopping at his store. It was not long before 
the Herr Steenwyck was known as the best dressed, 
most polite, and most popular man in New Amster- 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 1 23 

dam. Then he was made schepen, and, after the 
EngHsh came, mayor. He imported the newest 
goods from father-land and became rich. In his 
store, which filled the whole second floor of his 
dwelling, besides every thing in the hardware and 
grocery line, the fair shoppers might find the latest 
patterns in blue and red pennistoen, haft tyke, sarge, 
flannel, fryse, carsay, drugget, mopeling, camersche, 
canting, calko, garelet, hoUands, ozenbergs, fouster, 
neppins cloth, licking, damask, esternyns, galoen, 
silk crape, callemink, silk-striped stuff, colored silks, 
bruston-stuff, runell, bangale, colored fustian, buck- 
ram, plush, gloves, stockings, tops, blankets, and 
ribbons. 

We shall find the houses of the better class com- 
fortable and some even elegant. A wide, cool hall ex- 
tending through the centre of the house, with doors 
in front and rear, was a feature of all. These were 
hung with ancestral portraits, and furnished with a 
settee, and sometimes with a great Dutch clock with 
the family arms set in its case. The front room, or 
parlor, was usually furnished with a marble-topped 
table covered with a few devotional works and 
family heir-looms, with Russian-leather arm-chairs, a 
great square figured rug serving as a carpet, curtains 
of tabby cloth falling to the floor, a foot bench and 
cushion. The great chamber, or family room, in 
the rear was much more richly furnished. In one, 
we read, there were twelve Russian-leather chairs, 
two velvet chairs with fine silver lace, a cupboard 
of French nut-wood, a round table, a square table, 
a cabinet, a large looking-glass, a bedstead with its 



124 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

two feather-beds and canopy, ten pieces of china- 
ware, five alabaster inaages, a piece of tapestry 
work, a flowered tabby chimney cloth, a pair of 
flowered tabby curtains, and a dressing-box. 

The cabinet was filled with family jewels and with 
massive silver plate — the latter brought from father- 
land and often an heir-loom that had been treasured 
in the family for generations. Their plate was the 
pride and glory of the early Dutch families. There 
were pieces of superb workmanship then in the city, 
as is seen in the De Peyster family plate illustrated 
on another page. The " guest chamber," with its 
canopied bed, and nut-wood dressing-table, its Tur- 
key-leather chairs, and flowered cloth curtains, was 
also a feature of Dutch domestic arrangements. 

The chief social amusements are dancing parties 
(at which only the decorous square dances are known, 
and which break up at eleven, after a frugal repast 
of bread and chocolate is served), and what the 
young people call '' out parties," which are very 
much like the modern picnic. All along the shores 
of Manhattan are romantic coves, groves, and glens 
to which the young people of both sexes are fond of 
resorting. " The Locust Trees," a beautiful grove of 
locusts on a knoll near the North River, a little 
south of Trinity Church ; the umbrageous pathway 
known as the Maagde Paatje, with its attendant 
hill-side ; a little rock glen and clear-water brook on 
the present line of Gold Street ; and the beautiful 
sylvan lake called the kolcJi or fresh-water pond, 
near the present corner of Canal and Broadway, are 
all favorites with the sylvan excursionists. 








^^^^^^^^^^^^SMii^^^^M^^^^^^^ftffi 



DE PEYSTER PUNCH-BOWL. 



126 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

We regret that we cannot remain to share in the 
winter sports, of which our young friends give us 
sprightly accounts. They have been thus described : 

" First, as the weather turns cold, is the skating on the 
kolch and neighbor ponds. Then comes the snow, and 
the young men arrange for a sleighing frolic by moon- 
light. Four horses they get and Jan Dericksen's long 
sleigh that holdeth ten couples, packed close, as it suiteth 
young men and maidens to ride, and away they go over 
the Kissing Bridge, and under the bended pine boughs, 
often, methinks, as far as to Harlem, where at Mynheer 
Borsum's tavern they have a dance and a supper, which 
by our custom may consist of naught but bread and a pot 
of chocolate. 

" Again, though the Dutch be a sober folk, yet do they 
keep many festivals — Kerstrydt (Christmas), Nieuw Jar 
(New Year), Paas (Easter), Pinxter (Whitsuntide), and 
San Claas (St. Nicholas Day). Christmas comes first, 
and we also observe it as the anniversary of landing day. 
After the stockings are explored for whatever Santa 
Claus may have left there, the young people spend the 
morning skating on the kolch, or turkey-shooting in the 
forest ; at one the great ovens yieldeth up the Christmas 
feast, which all meet to enjoy. New Year is the greatest 
day in New Amsterdam. On that day no one does aught 
but call and receive calls. For days before, the house- 
wives have been brewing, baking, and mixing, and when 
the day cometh and thou goest to greet thy friend, thou 
findest the great logs crackling in the twelve-foot fire- 
place, and in the centre of the table, spread in the middle 
of the room, a mighty punch-bowl well reinforced by 
haunches of cold venison and turkeys roasted whole, and 
ornamented with cakes, comfits, confectionery, silver 



128 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



tankards, and bekers filled with rare Madeira and foam- 
ing ale. The good vrouw and her daughters, clad in 
their best, are there to receive one, and to dispense 
whole-hearted hospitality, smiles, and good wishes. 

" Paas, which we observe on Raster Monday, may 
be traced back to the early Saxon, from whom the 
Dutch are sprung. Paas means ' egg cracking,' and a 
favorite game on that day is called 'playing for eggs.' 
Thy sweetheart holds an egg in her hand and challenges 
thee to break it by striking it with thy egg, the broken 
one belonging to that which remaineth whole. On that 
day, too, the shops are gay with boiled eggs, tied with red 
and blue ribbons, or colored by mixing potent pigments 
in the water which hath boiled them. On Paas Day no 
true son of St. Nicholas tasteth other food than eggs." 




PART II. 
ENGLISH RULE. 




VI. 



THE NEW FLAG. 



Returning to take up the thread of our history, 
we find New Amsterdam under new rulers, with a 
new name. Henceforth, save for a brief period, she 
would be called New York, in honor of her new 
owner, James, Duke of York. 

The fort also was given a new name, James ; a 
new flag waved over it, the Union Jack, a standard 
symbolical of the nation which had come to rule. 
The red cross on its white ground was derived from 
a union of the three crosses of St. George, St. An- 
drew, and St. Patrick, originally emblems of the 
three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
now united in one great nation — a nation of sailors, 
navigators, pioneers, with such genius for coloniza- 
tion that the sun never sets on its dominions ; a 
nation which, with those that have sprung from it, 
is now the dominant power on the globe. It must 
be admitted that the change was in many respects a 
beneficial one. Instead of a mere trading-post, the 
slave of a commercial monopoly, surrounded by 
enemy colonies, each superior to it in numbers and 
enterprise. New York became one of several prov- 

131 



132 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

inces, under the same general government, speaking 
the same language, having to a certain extent the 
same interests. We shall find that her rate of in- 
crease was much more rapid in the one hundred and 
eleven years of English rule, than during the half 
century of Dutch domination. Her progress was, how- 
ever, not so rapid as it should have been, considering 
the advantages she possessed, for it was the policy 
of her English rulers to shorten, as far as they 
dared, that strong arm of her power — her commerce. 
In treating of this period we shall notice only the 
more important events, and shall strive to give due 
prominence to its leading principle — the struggle of 
the people for their rights, and especially for the 
right to govern themselves. 

Twenty royal governors, ruled New York while 
it remained a colony, under eight kings and queens — 
Charles II., James II. of the Stuart line, William 
and Mary of the House of Orange, Queen Anne of 
the Stuart line again, and lastly, the three Georges 
of the Brunswick line. 

The names of these governors, and their terms of 
ofBce, were: Richard NicoUs, 1 664-1 668 ; Francis 
Lovelace, 1668-1673 ; Sir Edmond Andros, 1674- 
1682; Thomas Dougan, 1683-1689; Henry Slough- 
ter, 1691, died July 23, 1691 ; Benjamin Fletcher, 
1692-1698; Earl of Bellomont, 1698, died March 5, 
1701 ; Lord Cornbury, 1 702-1 708 ; Lord Lovelace, 
1708, died May 6, 1709; Robert Hunter, 17 10-17 19; 
William Burnet, 1 720-1 728 ; Lprd John Mont- 
gomery, 1728, died July i, 1731 ; William Cosby, 
1732, died March 10, 1736; George Clinton, 1743- 



THE NEW FLAG. I 33 

1753; Sir Danvers Osborne, 1753, died October 12, 
1753 ; Sir Charles Hardy, 1755-1757 ; Robert Monck- 
ton, 1761-1765; Sir Henry Moore, 1765-1770; Earl 
of Dunmore, 1770; Sir William Tryon, 1771, de- 
posed in the Revolution. 

The interregnum between several of these dates 
was filled by lieutenant-governors or provisional 
governors. The average of these rulers in states- 
manship and patriotism was not high. Some were 
politicians merely. Some were old soldiers or sailors, 
who had to be provided for; and others, younger 
sons of titled families for whom places were desired. 
A few were men of sagacity and experience in public 
affairs, who were appointed for their fitness, or sup- 
posed fitness, for the position. Colonel NicoUs the 
first, was one of the most successful ; his position was 
one of great difficulty and delicacy. The Dutch citi- 
zens were to be placated, new and peculiar conditions 
were to be established, and special laws required to 
be made. In his treatment of these vexed ques- 
tions the Governor showed much tact and dis- 
cretion. 

The Dutch were left in possession of their homes, 
business, religion, and for nearly a year, of their 
city government. At length the latter was changed 
to the English form — burgomasters, schepens, and 
schout giving place to mayor, aldermen, and sheriff. 
A code of laws was framed, called The Dukes Laws, 
which were certainly much more liberal in matters 
of faith and conscience than those of the iron Direc- 
tor, Stuyvesant. Trial by jury was established, a 
justice court for each town also, with right of ap- 



134 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

peal to the Court of Sessions. Treason, murder, 
denying the true God, kidnapping, striking parents, 
and some other crimes were punishable by death. 
Slavery was allowed, but no Christians were to be 
made slaves except criminals sentenced by the lawful 
authority. No persons could trade with the Indians 
without a license. No Indian was allowed to " pow- 
wow," or perform incantations to the Devil. Churches 
were to be built and supported in each parish, but 
no sect was to be favored above another, and no 
Christian was to be fined, imprisoned, or molested 
for his religious opinions. 

These were the main provisions of the new laws. 
There were many others relating to the settlement 
of estates, anniversary sermons, surgeons, orphans, 
servants, weights and measures, births, burials, drift 
whales, wrecks, sailors, laborers, some of which seem 
very needless and curious in our eyes. 

The patents of the great patroonships were con- 
firmed under the titles of '^ manors." The Dutch 
still held their title to the old stone church in the 
fort, and continued to worship there, allowing the 
English congregation to hold its service in the after- 
noon. The English service was held on the first Sab- 
bath after the surrender, and this was the first time 
that that grand liturgy of the Anglican Church, 
which M. Taine pronounces the " national poem " 
of England, had been ofificially heard in New York, 
though travelling missionaries of the church had un- 
doubtedly read it in the city previous to this time. 

Before affairs were fairly settled at home, Governor 
Nicolls was menaced from abroad. War had broken 



THE NEW FLAG, 135 

out between England and Holland because of Nicolls' 
act, — a war in which France soon joined in favor of 
Holland, and an attack on New York might be made 
at any time by the great Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, 
whose fleet was known to be in the West Indies. 
De Ruyter, however, sailed for the home seas, where 
he arrived in time to gain fresh laurels in the war, at 
one time attacking and burning the English fleet 
in the mouth of the Thames itself. New York 
escaped for the time ; and in 1667 the peace of 
Breda left the Duke in peaceable possession of his 
new territory. 

In the interim (in 1666) had occurred the terrible 
plague and great fire of London. One hundred thou- 
sand people died by the former in five months ; five 
sixths of the houses in London were swept away by 
the latter, leaving the people homeless and beggared. 
These national disasters, by paralyzing trade and 
emigration, had great influence on the fortunes of 
New York. 

The French, too, who were by this time firmly es- 
tablished in Canada, and laid claim to all the terri- 
tory west of New York as far south as the Ohio 
River, required to be closely watched. These con- 
tinued anxieties, and the financial straits to which 
his generosity soon brought him, so wore upon the 
genial Governor that he wrote in 1668 asking to be 
recalled. The Duke consented, and appointed 
Colonel Francis Lovelace governor in his place. 
Every one had a good word for the retiring Gov- 
ernor. Commissioner Maverick wrote to Lord Ar- 
lington : '' He has kept persons of different judg- 



136 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

merits and of diverse nations in peace and quietness 
during a time when a great part of the world was in 
wars ; and as to the Indians, they were never brought 
into such peaceable posture and faire correspondence 
as they now are." As the time for the Governor's 
departure came a grand dinner was given him at the 
house of CorneHs Steenwyck ; and when on the 28th 
of August, 1668, he took final leave, a grand proces- 
sion of military and citizens escorted him to the 
vessel which was to convey him home. 

Colonel Lovelace, his successor, was an amiable, 
worthy gentleman, a favorite courtier of King Charles 
II., and one of his Knights of the Order of the Royal 
Oak. His administration is noteworthy only for the 
fierce civil and m^ilitary commotions which disturbed 
Europe, and rolled across the Atlantic with such 
force as to depose Lovelace from his government, 
and for the moment even to overthrow British power 
in New York. 

Charles II. had long been restive under the restric- 
tions which his Parliament imposed on his exercise 
of absolute power. Catholic France, under her able 
but unscrupulous monarch, Louis XIV., was now the 
leading power of Europe and the mortal foe of the 
Netherlands, which was Protestant in religion and 
republican in government. Charles, ignoring the fact 
that in 1669 he had formed a league with Holland 
and Sweden — known in history as '' The Triple 
Alliance," — now proposed to Louis to form an alli- 
ance with him against the Dutch, and to maintain 
Louis' claim to the throne of Spain, on condition 
that he (Louis) should aid him in establishing an ab- 



THE NEW FLAG. 137 

solute monarchy in England. War was therefore 
declared by the two nations against the Netherlands. 
The English engaged the Dutch fleets on the ocean, 
while Louis marched an army of 200,000 men into the 
Netherlands. He was, however, defeated and driven 
back by the Dutch, who cut the dykes and flooded 
the country with the sea, somewhat as later the Rus- 
sians repulsed Napoleon by burning the cities their 
fathers had reared. Meantime the Dutch privateers 
had nearly swept English commerce from the ocean ; 
while in the spring of 1673 a Dutch squadron, com- 
manded by two brave admirals, Evertsen and Binckes, 
had been despatched to recover their lost territory 
in America, and inflict as much damage on English 
shipping in those seas as possible. The squadron 
anchored in the lower bay on the 29th of June with 
about twenty English prizes in tow. 

Governor Lovelace was in Hartford in consulta- 
tion with Governor Winthop. Captain Manning, in 
command of Fort James, at once charged his guns, 
sent a drum through the streets to beat the alarm, 
and despatched a messenger post-haste to Hartford 
for Lovelace. The Dutch commanders, however, 
knew well the value of time, and moved their fleet 
to within musket-shot of the fort, while they sent 
to Manning a laconic summons to surrender. " We 
have come for our own," they added grimly, " and 
our own we will have." Manning sought to parley 
and secure terms, but Evertsen replied that he had 
already promised protection to citizens and property, 
and added that unless the Dutch flag was hoisted in 
half an hour he should fire on the fort, '' and the 



138 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

glass is already turned up," he added significantly. 
Manning stood to his guns, and when the half hour 
had expired the fleet fired a broadside into the fort, 
killing several men and wounding more. At the 
same time, the Dutch commander threw six hundred 
men ashore at a point just back of the present Trin- 
ity Church, and assailed his enemy in the rear. 
Manning, finding the odds too great, surrendered on 
conditions. He was allowed to march out through 
the gates at the head of his garrison with drums 
beating and colors flying. In the fort, the red-cross 
flag was pulled down,while the blue, white, and orange 
again floated triumphantly. The fort took a new name, 
William Hendrick, the province was called New 
Orange, after the young Prince of Orange, now 
the hope and pride of the Dutch State. The Dutch 
occupation was of short duration, however, and had 
little effect on the fortunes of the city. On the 9th 
of February, 1674, a treaty between Holland and 
England was signed at Westminster, by the terms of 
which Holland relinquished forever all claims to her 
former colony of New Netherlands. Governor Love- 
lace, however, was not restored to office. Sir Ed- 
mond Andros being appointed in his place. Love- 
lace returned to England, where he learned that his 
predecessor, the gallant and generous Nicolls, had 
been killed in one of the first battles of the war. 

Andros, the new Governor, was a courtier by birth 
as well as by training. His father had been Master 
of Ceremonies to Charles H., and he himself had 
been trained in the king's household. He was also a 
good soldier, and a man of title and estate, having 



THE NEW FLAG. 1 39 

recently become, by the death of his father, bailiff of 
Guernsey and hereditary seigneur of the fief of 
Sausmarez. He was a scholar, and a patron of art, 
something of a statesman, but harsh and imperious 
in temperament. His lovely and accomplished wife. 
Lady Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Craven, accom- 
panied him. 

The frigates Castle and Diamond, with the distin- 
guished party on board, arrived on the 22d of Octo- 
ber, 1674. Anthony Colve, the Dutch Governor, 
received them with stately ceremony, and after the 
proper amount of speech-making and letter-writing 
had been done, delivered over the government. Be- 
fore embarking for Holland, Colve performed an act 
of courtesy greatly to his credit : he sent Sir Edmond 
as a present the elegant coach and three broad- 
backed Flemish horses which he had used in his ofifi- 
cial journeys. 

Few events of sufihcient importance to be included 
in our story occurred during the reign of Governor 
Andros. He had many vexatious disputes with New 
Jersey and Connecticut over the question of bound- 
aries, and some trouble with the people he governed, 
who wished their laws made by an assembly of men 
chosen by the people, as was the case with their 
sister colonies. 

With the capture of the city by Nicolls, the Eng- 
lish-speaking people in New York, together with 
the more progressive Dutch citizens, had expected 
a more liberal form of government than they had 
enjoyed under the West India Company, but, in- 
stead, they found the one-man power still para- 



140 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

mount ; they had exchanged the rule of a company 
of merchants for the rule of a duke. True, they had 
been given concessions, but still they were allowed 
no voice in the management of their affairs. At 
length, in the summer of 168 1, under their leader, 
John Younge, high sheriff of Long Island, they drew 
up a monster petition to the Duke, reciting their 
grievances, which were : the exaction of a revenue 
without their consent, and the enthralling of their 
liberties and burdening of their trade by an arbitrary 
power exercised over them ; and praying that the 
Duke would henceforth govern his province through 
a governor, council, and assembly, as was done by 
the king in his plantations. James gave careful at- 
tention to this petition. Dyer, his Collector of 
Customs in New York, had written him that the 
merchants had refused to pay the duties levied 
under his laws, alleging that they were illegal and 
unconstitutional ; in fact, that he, Dyer, had already 
been indicted by the colonial court ''for traitorously 
exercising regal power and authority over the king's 
subjects." Fortunately for New York, James had 
two excellent advisers — ^his brother, King Charles, 
and the illustrious William Penn, who had recently 
drafted, with the aid of the republican statesman 
Algernon Sidney, a wise and liberal form of govern- 
ment for his new province of Pennsylvania. King 
Charles said it was evident that, in order to collect a 
revenue, an assembly must be granted. Penn ex- 
hibited his system of laws as a model, and, resting 
his hand lovingly on the Duke's shoulder, advised 
him to give the province the franchise. The Duke, 



THE NEW FLAG. 141 

after debating for some time the question of selling 
his American estate — for which large offers had been 
made, — decided to retain it and give it the franchise ; 
but as Andros had become obnoxious to the people, 
he decided to recall him, and appoint in his place 
Thomas Dongan, a gentleman who had distinguished 
himself in many battles, and who had served credit- 
ably as Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers, in Africa. 

Dongan arrived at Nantasket, near Boston, in 
August, 1683, and came on to New York by way of 
Connecticut and Long Island, everywhere received 
with respect and affection by the people, who were 
pleased by the affability of his manners, and by the 
news he bore, that the Duke had granted their peti- 
tion. One of Dongan's first acts was to issue writs 
for an election of representatives to the long-desired 
Provincial Assembly. By these writs we find that 
New York then extended eastward on the mainland 
as far as the west bank of the Connecticut River, 
and included Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and 
Nantucket ; at least the Duke claimed this under 
his patent, although Connecticut disputed his claim 
to the territory between the Connecticut River and 
the Hudson. 

New York, Albany, Rensselaerswyck, Esopus, 
Long Island, Staten Island, Pemaquid, and Martha's 
Vineyard sent deputies in answer to the writs, the 
whole number amounting to eighteen ; most of these 
were Dutch. This first Assembly of New York con- 
vened on October 17, 1683, with Matthias NicoUs as 
Speaker, and sat for three weeks. The first act 
passed by it was a '' Charter of Liberties and Privi- 



142 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

leges/' granted by the Duke. This charter recognized 
the principles of self-government and self-taxation 
which the people had long contended for, and se- 
cured freedom of conscience and religion to all. It 
also provided for the levying of duties on goods im- 
ported. Another act of Assembly divided the prov- 
ince into twelve counties. A third established 
courts of justice, of which there were four distinct 
classes: town courts; county courts, or courts of 
sessions; a general court of oyer and terminer; and 
a court of chancery, or supreme court, — the latter 
composed of the governor and council. From the 
judgment of this court, however, any aggrieved citi- 
zen might appeal to the king. 

This charter was quite an advance on that of 1664, 
and is interesting as a landmark in the long-continued 
struggle of the people for their rights. We must 
not forget to mention, too, among the laws of this 
Assembly, a naturalization act, by which all persons, 
except slaves, residing in the colony, of whatever 
race or tongue, were accounted citizens, provided 
they professed Christianity and took the oath of 
allegiance to the king. In the same manner, others 
seeking the city in time to come might also be made 
citizens. This act was intended largely to benefit 
the Huguenots, whom the merciless persecution of 
King Louis XIV. of France was driving from that 
country by tens of thousands. But before the Charter 
of Liberties and Privileges could be ratified by James, 
and forwarded to New York, an event occurred in 
England which prevented it from ever being trans- 
ferred. This event was the death — February 3, 



THE NEW FLAG. 1 43 

1684— of Charles II., and the elevation of James to 
the throne. James Rex, the colonists soon found, 
was quite a different person from James the Duke. 
Religious bigotry was his bane. He was also nar- 
row and illiberal, and sadly lacking in tact and judg- 
ment. The first time the affairs of New York came 
before him as king, he discovered that the Charter 
of Liberties and Privileges, which had never been 
sent to the colony, was too liberal, and he dechned 
to confirm it, but allowed it to continue in force 
until he should otherwise direct, so that the colo- 
nists still continued to enjoy its privileges. He also 
at this meeting broached the project of uniting New 
York and New England under one government. A 
letter was also written and despatched to New York, 
having the royal signature, providing that all men 
then in ofBce should be continued in power until 
further orders. The cry, - The king is dead— Long 
live the king," caused little commotion in New York. 
As nothing was said in the letter about an Assembly, 
one was called by Governor Dongan in October, 
1684, the appointed time. It was the last held, how- 
ever, during the reign of James II. That reign was 
brief and inglorious. James was a CathoHc, and at- 
tempted to re-establish the Catholic religion in his 
realm. But his Protestant subjects rose in revolt, 
and called the Dutch prince, WiUiam of Orange, who 
was a Protestant, and who had married Mary, the 
daughter of James, to lead them and be their king. 
William consented and, as we know, landed at Tor- 
bay, November 5, 1688, and was greeted with so 
popular an uprising that James hastened to abdicate 



144 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

in favor of his son and daughter. Some things he 
had done before this, which have special interest for 
us, since they refer to New York. The most inter- 
esting of these was the grant in 1686 of a charter 
to the city. This should not be confounded with 
the Charter of Liberties and Privileges, which was 
granted \.\i^ province . It was a broad and liberal instru- 
ment, and the wonder is that James, who was at this 
moment plotting to deprive the American colonies 
of their charters, should ever have granted it. The 
influence of Governor Dongan at court, and the high 
character of such citizens as Mayor Nicholas Bayard, 
Recorder James Graham, and others, was no doubt 
largely responsible for it. It was the great charter, 
the foundation on which the subsequent charters of 
1708 and 1730 were laid. It confirmed all previous 
*' rights and privileges " granted the city, and gave it 
in addition, by name, the City Hall, the great dock 
and bridge, the ferry, the two market-houses, and 
the waste, vacant, unpatented lands on the island 
above low -water mark, with the coves, rivulets, 
creeks, ponds, etc., not before granted. Some of 
these granted rights yield the city a large revenue to- 
day, while others have been appropriated to the use 
of the people. 

Soon after a new city seal was presented. The bea- 
ver of the old Dutch seal was retained, and a flour 
barrel and the arms of a windmill were added, the 
whole being significant of the trade in beaver and 
other furs, and the bolting of flour, the two lead- 
ing industries of the city at this time. By the 
spring of 1688, James' great plot against the char- 



THE NEW FLAG. 1 45 

tered rights of the American colonies was fully 
matured, and he issued a decree uniting all the colo- 
nies north of the fortieth degree of latitude into 
one great province, to be called New England. 
Pennsylvania alone was excepted. New Jersey, 
New York, and New England were merged into one ; 
and the charters they had so long and jealously guard- 
ed were swept away in an instant. New York was 
especially unfortunate ; she lost not only her Provin- 
cial Assembly and her Charter of Rights and Privi- 
leges, but her name and identity even. 

Sir Edmond Andros, who has been introduced to 
us as Governor of New York, was made Governor of 
the United Province, with head-quarters at Boston. 
Andros came to New York in August, 1688, to re- 
ceive the submission of the people. The occasion is 
described as being a brilliant event. A large and 
imposing retinue accompanied him. The City Guard 
— a regiment of foot and a troop of horse in showy, 
shining regimentals — received him and conducted 
him to Fort James, where his commission was read 
to the assembled people ; later it was read in the 
City Hall; the seal of New York was brought into 
his presence, broken and defaced by order of the 
king, and the Great Seal of New England adopted 
in its place. Andros' rule, however, was of short 
duration. In the spring of 1689 news reached Bos- 
ton of the abdication of James and the accession of 
William and Mary, and the people very quickly dis- 
posed of the hated Governor by seizing him and 
sending him to prison. 



VII. 

REBELLION. 

An exciting and instructive chapter in the city's 
history follows this act of New England in deposing 
her Governor. New York, too, was deprived of a 
ruler, and indeed of any government that all parties 
would recognize. A chaotic condition of affairs fol- 
lowed and continued for two years. Two factions at 
once arose: composed as to race, of the English 
against the Dutch ; as to class, of the aristocrats 
against the common people; as to religion, of the 
Church of England against the Dutch Reformed 
Church. 

The strife was as to who should rule the city. 
The English party held that the officers appointed 
by James should continue in power until their suc- 
cessors should appear armed with authority from 
William and Mary ; in other words, that the former 
government should stand. The Dutch party held 
that with the flight of James his authority ceased as 
much in the colonies as in England, and that there- 
fore the people should appoint officers to enforce the 
laws and maintain the peace until the pleasure of 
William should be known. There was a precedent 
for this view in the case of the New England colo- 

146 



rebellion: 147 

nies, which had set up their former governments on 
the overthrow of James. Both parties made out 
plausible cases, but neither would be convinced by 
the arguments of the other. 

The leaders of the English party were Lieutenant- 
Governor Nicholson and the three members of the 
deposed Governor's council, Frederick Phillipse, 
Stephanus Van Cortlandt, and Nicholas Bayard. 
The councillors were men of the highest repute in 
the city. Frederick Phillipse was known as the richest 
man in New York. He was a native of Friesland, of 
high birth, who had come to the city in youth poor 
and friendless, and had attained his present position 
largely through his address and ability as a merchant. 
He had an immense estate between the Spuyten 
Duyvil and the Croton River, which had been erected 
into a manor in 1693, under the title of Phillipse- 
borough. The old manor-house you may still see 
in the heart of the city of Yonkers, transformed into 
the City Hall. Van Cortlandt was Mayor, and 
had been Judge of the Admiralty ; a man of wealth 
and education. Bayard was a nephew of Governor 
Stuyvesant. He had been Surveyor and Secretary of 
the Province, Alderman, and Mayor of the city, and 
was now Colonel of the regiment of City Militia. All 
were learned, courtly, patriotic men, whose counsels 
in ordinary times would have been treated with the 
greatest respect and deference. The leaders of the 
democratic party were Jacob Leisler and his friend 
Jacob Milborne. Leisler was a German, born at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and had been a resident of 
New York about thirty years. He was a prosperous 



148 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

merchant, a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church, 
but had never held pubHc office, nor was he well 
versed in public affairs. He was at this time captain 
of one of the six train bands which comprised Colonel 
Bayard's regiment of militia. He was a man of great 
energy and force, and of much native quickness and 
sagacity, but entirely uneducated, coarse and violent 
in speech and manner, self-willed, arrogant, passion- 
ate, and of unbalanced judgment ; a fanatic on the 
subject of popery, a stern hater of the Enghsh, their 
church, and institutions. Milborne was Leisler's 
son-in-law ; a man of better education, but of far less 
principle. 

The struggle for power began April 29, 1689, by 
Leisler's refusing to pay the duties on a cargo of 
wine he had imported, on the plea that the Collector, 
Ploughman, was a Catholic, and therefore not quali- 
fied to perform his duties under the Protestant sover- 
ei2:ns. There was a heated discussion over it in the 
City Hall, between the councillors and the merchant, 
which was ended by Leisler's falling into a passion 
and declaring he would never pay a penny to Plough- 
man. From this moment strange stories and whis- 
perings were put into circulation, and were caught 
up and eagerly retailed by the ignorant peasantry, 
who being without schools, books, or newspapers, 
and most of them unable to read, were quite at the 
mercy of the demagogues. Lieutenant-Governor 
Nicholson, it was whispered, was plotting to betray 
the city into the hands of the French. The woods 
on Staten Island were said to be filled with Papist 
emissaries, whom Nicholson was in the habit of meet- 



REBELLION. 1 49 

ing to concert plots against the city. Anotlier rumor 
was, that King James, who had fled to France, was 
on the seas with a powerful French fleet, intending 
to reduce the city. Others told how the leading 
Dutch citizens were fast being won over to popery. 
Again, ex-Governor Dougan, who was still a resident 
of the city, was said to have concocted a plot to 
murder the Protestants and deliver the town to the 
Catholics. Some even came to Colonel Bayard and 
asked him to dismiss the Catholics on the militia 
force lest they should turn their arms on the citizens. 
" Dismiss the Catholics ! " said the colonel ; '' why, 
there are not above twenty on the force, and they 
are old cripples " ; and he had to send for Captain 
Leisler to reassure them. 

We must take into consideration this condition of 
the public mind in order to understand how the 
usurpation we are about to describe could have been 
effected. A very little thing at last precipitated rev- 
olution. Governor Nicholson lived in considerable 
state at his house in the fort, which at this moment 
was defended only by a sergeant's guard of regular 
troops, most of the garrison being employed on de- 
tached duty in Maine. To reinforce the sergeant's 
squad, a company of the city militia was detailed 
each night to mount guard at the fort. One night 
Nicholson coming home late found a militiaman 
stationed as sentinel in a sally-port and sharply repri- 
manded the sergeant in command, as only the regu- 
lars were detailed for sentinels. The man said it was 
by order of Lieutenant Cuyler, of the militia com- 
pany. Nicholson o'rdered the offending ofBcer before 



150 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

him, and put the question " Who commands this 
fort, you or I ? " Cuyler laid the responsibihty on 
his superior officer, Captain De Peyster. Nicholson, 
who seems to have felt that he was being watched by 
the militia captains, in a gust of passion drove them 
from the room, saying that he would rather see the 
town on fire than be commanded by them. 

The soldiers and gossips tortured this expression 
into a threat to burn the town : and they said the 
Governor had laid a plot to murder all the Dutch 
inhabitants the next Sunday as they went to church 
in the fort. Towards noon of that day, May 31st, a 
single drum-beat was heard. At once, as if by concerted 
signal, laborers dropped their implements, mechanics 
their tools, and rushed into the streets. The city 
stood affrighted. Shopkeepers put up their shut- 
ters : householders barred doors and windows. Cap- 
tain Leisler's company was observed to muster before 
his house in the strand. Gathered there, they were 
harangued by Sergeant Joost Stoll, who at last ex- 
claimed, '' We are sold, we are betrayed, we are going 
to be murdered," and led his company to the fort, 
attended by the mob. Probably there was not one 
of the commonalty from Leisler down, who did not 
honestly believe that his life and property were in 
jeopardy. Lieutenant Cuyler was at the fort and 
admitted the soldiers, and in a few moments Leisler 
appeared and took command. Soon after Colonel 
Bayard, by command of the council, went to the 
fort and ordered the soldiers to disperse, but Stoll 
coolly told him that they disowned all authority of 
the government. A little inquiry convinced Bayard 



REBELLION. 151 

that the entire City Guard was in open rebeUion. 
When this fact was reported to Governor Nicholson, 
he called a meeting of the council at the City Hall: 
but while they were deliberating there came a sound 
of marching men, and Captain Loedwyck at the 
head of his company appeared in the chamber and 
demanded the keys of the fort. To prevent bloodshed, 
and being without soldiers to defend his authority, 
Nicholson yielded them up under protest. And so 
the popular party, or Leislerites, came into possession 
of the city. For a time Leisler governed with some 
show of moderation. He wrote an address to Wil- 
liam and Mary in behalf of the '' militia and inhab- 
itants of New York," in which he described at length, 
the revolution and the causes which had led to it, 
and promised most loyal submission for himself and 
those acting with him. In June, however, Governor 
Nicholson sailed for England, intending to lay his 
case before the king, leaving affairs in charge of 
three councillors, and from this time on Leisler 
grew more and more arrogant and dictatorial. He 
compared himself to Cromwell, and spoke often of 
his patriotism and address in saving the city from 
pillage and massacre. He declared that the sword 
must now rule in New York, and behaved with great 
insolence, and after a time with great cruelty, toward 
those opposed to him ; in fact, he behaved quite like 
a man whose head was turned by rank egotism, and 
the possession of unlimited power. 

Soon news came that William and Mary had been 
proclaimed in Barbadoes, and, soon after, in Boston. 
They were proclaimed in Hartford on the 13th of 



152 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

June, and two envoys, Major Gold and Captain 
Fitch, were despatched to New York with the 
orders for proclaiming them there. They also bore 
a royal proclamation confirming all Potestant officers 
in the colonies in their places. Leisler managed to 
secure both proclamations in advance of Mayor Van 
Cortlandt — although the latter rode far out into 
Westchester to intercept the envoys ; and, on the 
22d, read the former in the fort. Afterward it was 
given to Mayor Van Cortlandt to be read in the City 
Hall, and was so read, after many angry words had 
passed between Leisler and Van Cortlandt over the 
former's unwarranted act. Two days later Van 
Cortlandt obtained a copy of the proclamation con- 
firming all Protestant officers in their places. We 
can imagine his elation ; it ratified all he and his 
party had done ; it constituted himself and his col- 
leagues, Phillips and Bayard, the only legal govern- 
ment for the province, since they had received their 
commission from the crown. Leisler and his party, 
on the other hand, were filled with rage and dismay. 
Perhaps they feared for their lives if such bitter ene- 
mies as the councillors came into authority ; perhaps 
they were simply intoxicated with the lust of power : 
at any rate they determined to resist. Of course 
such an act would be high treason and punishable 
with death ; but they do not seem to have thought 
of that. Mayor Van Cortlandt had the proclamation 
read to the aldermen and the citizens in the City Hall 
the same day it was received. The next morning, 
June 25th, he invited the other councillors and the 
Common Council to his house, and the two bodies 



REBELLION. 1 53 

conferred long and earnestly as to how lawful author- 
ity should be restored to the city, and the people 
quieted. One of their first acts was to remove the 
Collector of Customs — Ploughman, — who was a 
Catholic, and therefore ineligible, and to appoint in 
his place four commissioners, worthy and reputable 
citizens, Protestants all, Nicholas Bayard heading 
the list. These gentlemen, after taking the oath of 
oflfiice, received the keys and began their duties. 
They had barely time to change the first letter in 
the king's arms, however, when the clank of sabres 
and tread of armed men was heard, and Leisler, at 
the head of a body of militia, marched in, and sav- 
agely ordered them out of the room. Bayard sternly 
reminded him that they were there by authority of 
the king, and warned him against offering violence 
to his Majesty's officers. Leisler, in reply, began a 
long tirade, in which the epithets " rogues, traitors, 
and devils," were freely applied to the commission- 
ers. In the midst of it, a soldier seized Wenham, 
one of the commissioners, and dragged him into the 
street, where he was sadly battered by the mob. 
Bayard himself was struck at fiercely, but warded off 
the blows, and succeeded in escaping to a house near 
by, which was at once besieged by the rabble. He, 
however, escaped to his own house. Meantime a 
mob filled the street, and clamored for the blood of 
the aristocrats. They had but one rallying cry : 
" The rogues have sixty men ready to kill Captain 
Leisler ! " 

Next morning friends of Colonel Bayard, includ- 
ing the aldermen, came to him with the warning that 



154 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

his life was in danger, and besought him to flee the 
city. Bayard at last consented. Horses were pro- 
vided outside the city limits, and in disguise, accom- 
panied by two negro servants, he succeeded in leav- 
ing the city, and in reaching Albany. He returned 
secretly in October, having learned that a favorite 
son was at the point of death. His presence was 
quickly discovered, however, and an armed posse 
was sent to the house of death to arrest him. The 
men searched the house from top to bottom with 
oaths and ribald shouts, swearing they would fetch 
their victim " from the gates of hell," but failed to 
find him. They next attacked the house of Mayor 
Van Cortlandt, threatening to take his life, but were 
held at bay by Mrs. Van Cortlandt until her husband 
could make his escape. Fleeing from the city. Van 
Cortlandt passed up into Connecticut, and took ref- 
uge with Governor Treat, at Hartford. 

It is not necessary to detail the various acts of vio- 
lence and usurpation committed by Leisler from this 
time forward. Let us see how retribution finally 
came to him. 

Shakespeare's Ariel must have written the first 
state paper intended to regulate affairs at New 
York. Nicholson had not then reached London, 
and the ministry, supposing him to be still in 
power, addressed a letter to him ordering him to as- 
sume the government, call the chief citizens to his 
aid, and *' do and perform alL the requirements of 
the office." By some fatuity, this letter was not ad- 
dressed to Nicholson by name, but to '' Our Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our 



REBELLION. I 5 5 

Province of New York in America, and in his ab- 
sence to such as for the time being take care for pre- 
serving the peace and administering the laws in our 
said province of New York in America." 

When John Riggs, the messenger bearing this let- 
ter, reached New York, Leisler sent an armed force 
to conduct him to the fort. Next morning the coun- 
cillors, summoned by Riggs, met in the fort to re- 
ceive the letter, but were not allowed to accept it by 
Leisler. " The king," he said, " knew that he was at 
the head of the government, and intended the letter 
for him." The councillors protested, but Leisler's 
show of force overawed the messenger, and the 
packet was delivered to him, whereupon he turned 
upon the councillors, and calling them " popishly- 
affected dogs and rogues," bade them " begone." 
Leisler now told the people that the king had named 
him Lieutenant-Governor, and at once entered on 
the duties of the ofifice — appointed a council and 
other officials, had William and Mary proclaimed a 
second time, and when the Sabbath came, rode to 
the Dutch Church and sat in the Governor's pew, 
while his council walked gravely in and seated them- 
selves in the pew reserved for magistrates. 

One can imagine the feelings of the aristocrats. 
No doubt they prayed heartily that this rogue might 
soon come to the end of his tether. Meantime 
Governor Nicholson had reached London, and had 
laid his case before the king and the Plantation 
Committee. They sustained him in all his acts, and 
at once appointed a new governor. Colonel Henry 
Sloughter, while Nicholson was rewarded by being 



156 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

made Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia. The Irish and 
other internal troubles, however, prevented Sloughter 
from at once setting out, and for some time longer the 
Lord of Misrule continued to play his pranks with the 
colony. In the winter of 1690, Leisler learned that Sir 
Edmond Andros, who had lain in jail in Boston since 
his arrest, was about to be sent to England for trial, 
and apprehensive that the councillors would send let- 
ters to the king by him, he caused sturdy John Perry, 
the Boston post rider, to be closely watched. The 
house of Colonel Lewis Morris, in Westchester, was the 
last place where Perry received letters for Boston, and 
one day, after leaving it, he was seized by Leisler's 
men-at-arms, brought to the city, and thrown into 
prison. In his mail-bag were found, as Leisler had 
suspected, letters to the king from Bayard, Van Cort- 
landt, and others of their party, complaining bitterly 
of the acts of the usurper. Leisler at once pro- 
claimed that he had discovered a " hellish conspiracy " 
against the government, and that Colonel Bayard 
was the ringleader in it. A file of soldiers, therefore, 
seized that gentleman, loaded him with chains, and 
cast him into the common gaol, where he received 
the treatment accorded the worst malefactors. Van 
Cortlandt escaped the soldiers and became again a 
fugitive, but William Nicolls, the Attorney-General of 
the province, was captured and lodged in the same 
prison with Colonel Bayard. 

In the spring of 1690 Leisler called a congress of 
all the colonies, to meet at New York, and deliberate 
on the threatening attitude of the French in Canada. 
This was the first American Colonial Congress, and 
met in New York May I, 1690. 



REBELLION. 157 

Tyranny often works its own cure ; and the weak- 
est of all governments is that based on the ignorance 
and superstition of the governed. Leisler had by 
this time become very unpopular with the people. 
His imprisonment of so many leading citizens shocked 
their sense of justice, and to many other odious and 
arbitrary acts he now added that of seizing estates 
and personal property to satisfy taxes. The right 
of his Assembly to lay such taxes was denied by 
many, and refusal to pay was often followed by con- 
fiscation. '' Governor Dog-driver," '' Lieutenant 
Blockhead," '' Deacon Jailer," were the epithets 
now conferred upon him. Once, in May, 1690, he 
was assaulted in the streets. 

An address to William and Mary, written about 
this time, and signed by the French and Dutch dom- 
ines and leading citizens of New York, describes 
the city as being '*' at the sole will of an insolent alien, 
assisted by those who formerly were not thought fit 
to bear the meanest office, several of whom can be 
proved guilty of enormous crimes. . . . They im- 
prison at will, open letters, seize estates, plunder 
houses, and abuse the clergymen." 

Some six months later, after a series of fresh out- 
rages, the people of Jamaica, Hempstead, Flushing, 
and Newtown addressed a yet more piteous appeal 
to the king's secretary. 

Milborne, they charged, famous for nothing but 
cruelty, had "in a barbarous and inhuman manner 
plundered houses, stripped women of their apparel, 
and sequestered estates," and they besought the 
king to relieve them of this oppressor, all of whose 



158 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

acts seemed based on Catiline's maxim : *' The ills 
that I have done cannot be safe but by attempting 
greater." The king seems to have been brought to 
a lively sense of the situation by these petitions, 
and Governor Sloughter was ordered to proceed 
to his government at once. The Archangel, the Bea- 
ver, and two smaller vessels were gotten ready, two 
companies of soldiers were placed on board, and 
early in December, 1690, the fleet set sail, Sloughter 
and his staff in the Archangel, Major Richard In- 
goldsby, the Lieutenant-Governor, in the Beaver. 
The instructions, commissions, Leisler's letters, and 
the petitions of the people were given to Sloughter, 
with instructions to inquire carefully into the whole 
story of Leisler's rule. Sloughter was given also a 
system of government for the colony, which contin- 
ued in force until the close of the Revolution. It 
differed little from that of James. There was to be 
a governor and council appointed by the king and 
an assembly elected by the people. Liberty of con- 
science was assured all peaceable citizens ''except 
Papists"; but the Church of England was made the 
State church and placed under the jurisdiction of the 
Bishop of London. The former members of the 
council were re-appointed with scarcely an exception, 
thus condemning Leisler in advance. News reached 
New York, by way of Boston, that the Governor was 
on the way, long before the ships arrived. Both par- 
ties watched breathlessly, as one might say, the day of 
reckoning. At length, on the 29th of January, 1691, 
a vessel was signalled from the Battery, and as she 
came on it was seen that it was one of the Governor's 



REBELLION. 1 59 

fleet. One, two, three soon appeared, but the 
fourth could nowhere be discovered. By strange 
naischance the absent vessel proved to be the Arch- 
angel, the one which bore the Governor. Had it 
been either of the others, the crimes of treason and 
murder might not have been fixed on Leisler, and 
the city would have been spared scenes of riot and 
bloodshed. As the Beaver came to anchor she was 
boarded by Phillipse, Van Cortlandt, and others, to 
whom Ingoldsby explained that the fleet had been 
separated by a great storm, and that, for aught he 
knew, the Archangel might be at the bottom of the 
sea. 

The councillors then briefly acquainted him with 
the position of afl^airs, and urged that he make an 
immediate demand for the possession of the fort and 
government. A strange scene ensued — one of the 
last acts in this tragedy of errors. 

Ingoldsby sent a messenger to Leisler demanding 
the fort for the king's soldiers and their stores. Leis- 
ler, in reply, demanded to be shown Ingoldsby's com- 
mission and authority. The Lieutenant-Governor 
had nothing of the sort ; everything was with Gover- 
nor Sloughter in the Archangel. Leisler then re- 
plied, emphasizing his loyalty to the king, and tender- 
ing the City Hall for the troops, but refusing to yield 
the fort until Ingoldsby could produce written orders 
from the king or Governor. Ingoldsby was afraid to 
land, and remained cooped up in his ship for several 
days ; but at last, being assured that the great body of 
the people were with him, he landed his soldiers as 
cautiously, he wrote home, as though making '^ a de- 



l6o THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

scent into the country of an enemy," and took post in 
•the City Hall. Next he sent a letter to Leisler, order- 
ing him to release Bayard and Nicolls — still confined 
in the fort, — since they were named councillors to the 
king. This demand threw Leisler into a paroxysm 
of rage. " What ! " he cried, " those popish dogs 
and rogues ! " and he returned word that he should 
hold the prisoners until his Majesty's further orders 
arrived. This was the situation from day to day for 
six weeks : the king's Lieutenant-Governor cooped 
up in the City Hall, practically a prisoner; the king's 
councillors confined in the common gaol ; both con- 
trolled and. dictated to by a citizen whose power con- 
sisted only in his supposed hold on the people and his 
command of the city militia. Perhaps if Ingoldsby, 
who was a brave soldier, could have produced his 
commission, he would have adopted a bolder policy. 

It is charitable to suppose that Leisler was at this 
time really insane. He now committed the overt 
act. 

Hearing that Ingoldsby and the councillors had 
gathered a force of several hundred men in the city, 
he sent orders to them to disperse under pain of 
being attacked and destroyed. Two hours for a 
reply was the ultimatum. It came in less time. It 
said that the Lieutenant-Governor proposed to pre- 
serve the peace, and that whoever should attack him 
would render themselves "public enemies to the 
crown of England." Some of Ingoldsby's soldiers 
were drawn up on parade, probably on the Bowling 
Green, as Leisler received the message. A gun from 
the fort was at once turned on them and fired. A 



rebellion: i6i 

house in which the soldiers lodged was also fired 
into. Two British soldiers were killed and several 
wounded. The fire was returned without injuring 
any of Leisler's men. Next day, March 19th, as 
both parties stood at bay confronting each other, 
the Archangel was signalled in the Narrows. Had 
she been reaUy a celestial visitant, she could not 
have been more welcome. Governor Sloughter, be- 
ing informed of the condition of affairs, hurried 
in a pinnace to the city. Night fell ere he arrived, 
but he went at once to the City Hall, where his 
commission was read to the people. Their joyous 
shouts and acclamations, we are told, were heard 
by Leisler in the fort. The Governor and the coun- 
cillors then took the oath of ofifice. It was eleven 
o'clock at night ; nevertheless, Ingoldsby and his 
soldiers were despatched to the fort to demand it in 
the name of the king. Leisler would not comply 
until he had sent Sergeant Stoll, who had met the 
Governor abroad, to make sure of him as the real 
Sloughter. Stoll told Governor Sloughter that he 
was glad to find him the same man he had known in 
England. '' Yes," was the quick retort, " I have 
been seen in England, and intend now to be seen in 
New York." Stoll, as an envoy, was ignored, how- 
ever, and Ingoldsby was again sent to the fort with 
orders for Leisler and those calling themselves his 
council to report to the Governor at once, and to 
bring Bayard and Nicolls, the prisoners, with them. 
But Leisler was fruitful in expedients, and urged 
that it would be against all military precedent to 
surrender a fort at night. A third time Ingoldsby 



1 62 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

was sent, and a third time he was " contemptuously " 
refused. Then, it being past midnight, Governor, 
councillors, and messengers retired with an ao-ree- 
ment to meet at an early hour next morning. The 
morning came, and Governor and council met 
promptly at the City Hall. In the interim Slough- 
ter had matured his plans. Taking no notice of a 
humble letter from Leisler, asserting his loyalty, and 
offering to give '^ an exact account of all his actions 
and conduct," he ordered Ingoldsby to go to the fort 
and command the men to lay down their arms, offer- 
ing pardon to all save Leisler and his council. In- 
goldsby did so. Leisler and his councillors were 
given up to the guards, and led prisoners to the City 
Hall. Then the heavy doors of the dungeons were 
thrown open, and Bayard and Nicolls, aged and 
emaciated almost beyond recognition, tottered out 
into the sunlight. They were met with congratu- 
lations mingled with exclamations of pity. For 
thirteen months they had languished in prison, their 
estates plundered by a military despot, and their 
families exposed to the fury of a mob. Bayard and 
Nicolls were conducted to the City Hall, where they 
took the oath of office amid the cheers of the people. 
Leisler and his councillors were then led through the 
street to the fort, and thrust into the cells just vacated 
by their victims ; the chain that Bayard had worn 
was even put upon Leisler's leg. A popular demand 
at once arose for the speedy trial and punishment 
of Leisler and his council. Sloughter, quite willing 
to escape the ordeal of sitting in judgment on them, 
agreed that a civil trial should be had. On Monday, 



REBELLION, 1 63 

March 23d, three days after the surrender, the prison- 
ers were examined and bound over for trial. The 
case was next given to the grand jury, which found 
a true bill against Leisler, Milborne, and eight others, 
and indicted them for treason and murder, '' for hold- 
ing by force the king's fort against the king's Gover- 
nor, after the publication of his commission, and 
after demand had been made in the king's name, 
and in the reducing of which lives had been lost." 
Many other crimes might have been charged against 
the prisoners, but the prosecution wisely decided to 
bring only this, the penalty of which, if proven, was 
death. 

The court sat March 30th, and the trial proceeded 
with that solemnity and stately ceremonial which 
then characterized English court procedure. It was 
a special court of Oyer and Terminer. The judges, 
too, had been specially appointed, and a very august 
tribunal they were, as they sat there clad in their 
black robes and full-bottomed wigs — Chief-Justice 
Dudley, Thomias Johnson, Sir Robert Robinson, 
former Governor of Bermuda, Jasper Hicks, Captain 
of the Archangel frigate, Lieutenant-Governor In- 
goldsby, Colonel William Smith, Major John Law- 
rence, Recorder Pinhorn, John Younge, and Isaac 
Arnold. They were gentlemen who had suffered 
little or nothing from the prisoners, and were consid- 
ered least prejudiced against them. The trial lasted 
eight days, and was watched with intense interest 
by every class of citizens. Not for sixty years would 
the city see another trial of such absorbing interest. 
The eight lesser prisoners pleaded not guilty to the 



164 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

charge. Leisler and Milborne declined to plead at 
all until the court should decide whether the kine's 
letter to Nicholson had conferred the government on 
Leisler. The court referred the question to Govern- 
or Sloughter and his councillors, and their prompt 
reply was that neither in the king's letter, nor in the 
papers of the Privy Council, was there any authority 
for the prisoner to seize upon the government. This 
swept away any defence the prisoners may have hoped 
to make. Unless they could prove authority for 
their acts they stood convicted. Leisler and Mil- 
borne did the best that could be done under the cir- 
cumstances. They refused to plead, and appealed 
to the king. They were therefore tried as " mutes.*' 
Leisler, Milborne and six of the eight other pris- 
oners were found guilty ; two were acquitted. Chief- 
Justice Dudley at once passed sentence of death 
upon the eight, there being but short shift in those 
days between trial and execution. The prisoners 
pleaded for a reprieve until the king's pleasure should 
be known, and the petition Avas for a time entertained, 
Sloughter having doubts as to his authority for sign- 
ing the death-warrant in case of an appeal to the 
king. In his letter to William accompanying the 
petition, Sloughter wrote : " Never greater villains 
lived, but I am resolved to wait your pleasure, if by 
any other means than hanging I can keep the coun- 
try quiet." 

It was soon impressed upon him, however, that 
there was no security for the country's peace until 
the leaders, at least, were executed. The Dutch 
clergymen, it is said, openly advocated from the pul- 



REBELLION. 1 65 

pit the death of Leisler and Milborne. Ladies of 
the highest station, who had suffered from Leisler's 
acts, earnestly pleaded with the Governor to sign the 
death-warrant. The most loyal and eminent men of 
the province came to him, declaring that there was 
no security for life or property while the leaders 
lived, as they could at any moment be rescued by 
a mob ; they even said that they would remove 
from the country unless the sentence was carried 
out. There were counter-petitions, too, from the 
friends and families of the condemned, praying for 
clemency. At length news came from Albany that 
the Mohawks, incensed by certain acts of Leisler and 
his lieutenants while in power, were on the point of 
joining the French, and that nothing would have 
greater influence in quieting them than the death of 
their enemy. 

At a meeting of the Governor and council held 
May 14th, it was '' unanimously resolved " that, for 
the satisfaction of the Indians, and the assertion of 
the government and authority, and the prevention of 
insurrections and disorders for the future, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that the sentence pronounced against 
the principal offenders be forthwith put in execution." 
A minute of this action was sent to the Provincial 
Assembly — which the Governor had convened, — and 
returned with this endorsement : "This House, ac- 
cording to their opinion given, do approve of what 
his Excellency and Council have done." 

Upon this grave counsel and advice, the Governor 
signed the death-warrant. On a dismal, rainy Sat- 
urday morning Leisler and Milborne were brought 



1 66 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

out to die. The gallows had been erected on what 
is now the east side of the City Hall Park, near the 
present site of the Sun newspaper office. A motley 
crowd assembled, and greeted the condemned, as they 
appeared, with oaths and ribald shouts, and were 
only prevented from doing them bodily harm by a 
strong guard of soldiers. Leisler met his fate with 
firmness and dignity. He made a long speech on 
the scaffold, from which we extract two sentences : 

'' So far from revenge do we depart this world, that we 
require and make it our dying request to all our relations 
and friends, that they should in time to come be forgetful 
of any injury done to us, or either of us, so that on both 
sides the discord and dissension (which were created by 
the Devil in the beginning) may, with our ashes, be buried 
in oblivion, never more to rise up for the trouble of fu- 
ture posterity." And again : " All that for our dying 
comfort we can say concerning the point for which we 
are condemned, is to declare as our last words, before 
that God whom we hope before long to see, that our 
sole aim and object in the conduct of the government 
was to maintain the interest of our sovereign Lord and 
Lady and the reformed Protestant churches of these 
parts." 

Perhaps the justest judgment that could be passed 
over this man is, that he was of unsound mind, crazed 
by religious fanaticism, fear of Popish plots, and un- 
wonted possession of unlimited power. His earnest 
prayer that dissension should end with his death 
was not however fulfilled: his faction continued to 
survive for generations, and was a thorn in the side 
of royal governors for half a century. When the 



REBELLION. 



167 



appeal of Leisler came before King William, he de- 
clared that the sentence was a righteous one and 
sustained the judges. He restored the estates of the 
deceased to their heirs, however, on the ground of 
loyal services rendered by Leisler, and four years 
later, in 1695, Parliament, on petition, reversed the 
decree of attainder, thus removing the stigma of 
treason. The six minor prisoners condemned with 
Leisler and Milborne, were eventually released. 




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VIII. 

THE ROMANTIC AGE. 

A LITTLE more than two months after the execu- 
tion of Leisler, Governor Sloughter died suddenly, 
not without suspicion of having been poisoned. 
Lieutenant-Governor Ingoldsby took the helm of 
government for a brief period — from July, 1691, to 
August, 1692, — when he was succeeded by Colonel 
Benjamin Fletcher. This gentleman was a soldier, 
who had been advanced by brave service done their 
Majesties in the Low Countries. He was a courtier, 
too, a politic man, shrewd, pliant, persuasive, posses- 
sing many of the characteristics of the modern poli- 
tician — not to be commended for every thing he did, 
but perhaps the best man for the place that could 
have been found ; for he came to the government in 
" very troublous days " indeed. The French and 
Indians were pressing hard his northern frontiers, 
and the spirit of faction was rife in the city. The 
Leislerites, having recovered from their panic, were 
engaged in constant intrigues and collisions with the 
aristocratic party, so-called, the issue being the exe- 
cution, or "" murder," as the former called it, of Leis- 
ler and Milborne. 

Governor Fletcher's reign may be termed the 

168 



THE ROMANTIC AGE. 1 69 

romantic age of the city — the age of tradition 
and story, of privateer and pirate, of Captain Kidd 
and the Red Sea Men. We will consider this subject 
of piracy somewhat at length, from its rare literary 
interest, and because former historians have dwelt 
but briefly upon it. The privateers were successors 
of the '^ buccaneers," bodies of adventurers who, 
early in the sixteenth century, under the patronage 
of the English and French courts, established them- 
selves on the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and waged 
bitter war against the common enemy, the Spaniards, 
whose many rich and populous cities scattered along 
the Mexican and South American Coasts of that 
sea invited to attack. The privateer, who succeeded 
them, w^as more regular. He was a private citizen, 
owner of a swift merchant-vessel, whom his govern- 
ment in time of war commissioned to proceed against 
the enemy and kill, burn, and capture wherever he 
might meet him. If captured, the privateer's com- 
mission entitled him to be treated as a prisoner of war. 
The English, Dutch, and French were the first to 
adopt this arm of war, and it continued to be used by 
them until abolished by the treaty of Paris in 1856. 
If, however, a privateer turned his guns upon peace- 
ful nations not named in his commission, he became 
a pirate, and the common enemy of mankind. A 
Captain Petersen was the first American privateer 
of whom we have an account, and we know of him 
only from the fact that with his barque of twenty- 
two guns and seventy men he captured two French 
vessels off the Canadian coast, and not content with 
that exploit, attacked and carried the French fort 



I/O THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Chibocoton near by, the commander of which had 
put off in a small boat to learn the cause of the firing. 
The war between France and England, known in 
history as King William's war, which broke out in 
1688-9, greatly increased the number of these priva- 
teers, not a few of whom became pirates. If they 
adopted piracy, their method was to bear away for 
the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and that part of the 
Indian Ocean which washes the southern shore of 
Asia. The rich argosies of the Dutch and British 
East India Companies then traversed those seas, and 
there was also a rich coasting trade between the 
opulent cities of Arabia and the adjoining countries 
and India. These coasters were generally unarmed, 
and no match for the fierce, swift, corsairs which 
darted on them like a falcon on its prey. The booty 
secured, there were two ways of disposing of it. 
Sometimes the pirate himself returned to New York 
as an honest privateer and entered his cargo in the 
Admiralty Court, where it was sold by due process of 
law. Again he ran down with his plunder to the 
island of Madagascar, where the pirates had a grand 
rendezvous — a village with warehouses and miaga- 
zines filled with gold and East India goods, and de- 
fended by a fort and stockade. Here he usually 
found a merchant-ship in waiting, sent out by some 
firm in New York with which he had an understand- 
ing, and which was ready to exchange the goods 
she had brought out for those taken by the pirates, 
or to purchase the latter for cash. This done, the 
merchant vessel sailed for New York, where her 
cargo was entered as East India goods secured in the 



THE ROMANTIC AGE. 171 

regular way, the pirate meanwhile setting forth in 
quest of fresh victims. 

This trade with the pirates soon came to be 
a regularly organized traffic, and enormous fortunes 
were made and lost in it. The fate of four ves- 
sels which all sailed from New York in July, 1698, 
for Madagascar, may be taken as an illustration. 
The first, the Nassau^ Captain Giles Shelley, was 
laden with Jamaica rum, Madeira wine, and gun- 
powder. The rum cost in New York two shil- 
lings per gallon, and was sold in Madagascar for 
three pounds per gallon. The wine cost nineteen 
pounds per pipe, and was sold for three hundred 
pounds ; and the gunpowder we may suppose at a 
similar advance. In return, the Nassau purchased 
East India goods and slaves of the pirates, and tak- 
ing twenty-nine of the latter as passengers, sailed for 
home. The pirates paid four thousand pounds for 
their passage, and the voyage is said to have netted 
the owners thirty thousand pounds. 

A sister ship, the Prophet Da7iiel, was not so for- 
tunate. She too cleared for Madagascar, ostensibly 
for slaves. Her supercargo, John Cruger, a young 
man of spirit and enterprise, who later became a 
great merchant, and mayor of the city, in his log- 
book of the voyage, gives this unique account of 
the fate of the vessel : 

" 24th August (1699), arrived at Fort Dolphin (a 
famous pirate haunt on the African coast). I acquainted 
Mr. Abraham Samuel, the king of that place, of my 
arrival, and came with him to a trade. 12th September, 
I went with Mr. Samuel twenty-five miles up in the 



172 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

country, and on the second day after, I got the misera- 
ble news that our ship was taken by a vessel that came 
into the harbor the night before, whereupon I made all the 
haste down I could. We got some of the subjects of Mr. 
Samuel to assist us, and fired upon the pirate for two 
days, but could do no good. Then I hired two men to 
swim, off in the night to cut their cables, but Mr. Samuel 
charged his men not to meddle with them (as I was in- 
formed); said Samuel having got a letter from on board 
the pirate, in which, I suppose, they made great promises, 
so that he forbade us on our lives to meddle with any of 
the said pirates. It appears that the manner in which 
they took us was as follows : When their ship came to 
an anchor in the harbor, they desired our boat to give 
them a cast on shore, they having lost their boat, and 
pretended to be a merchant-ship, and had about fifty 
negroes on board. At night the captain of the pirate 
desired that our boat might give him a cast on board of 
his ship, which was done ; and coming on board he de- 
sired the men to drink with him; and when our men were 
going on board their ship again he stopped them by vio- 
lence ; and at about 9 o'clock at night they manned the 
boat, and took our ship, and presently carried away all 
the money that was on board, rigging, and other things, 
and then gave the ship and negroes and other things 
that were on board to Mr. Samuel. 

'^ Mr. Samuel took likewise away from me twenty-two 
casks of powder, and forty-nine small arms ; likewise all 
the sails belonging to the Prophet, which were on shore, and 
then sold the ship again to Isaac Ruff, Thomas Wells, Ed- 
mond Conklin, and Edward Woodman, as it was reported, 
for fourteen hundred pieces of eight. The purchas- 
ers designed to go from Fort Dolphin to the island of 
Don Mascourena, thence to Mattatana upon Madagascar^ 



THE ROMANTIC AGE. 1 73 

and so for America. Some days after there arrived at 
Fort Dolphin a small pinke called the Vine^ from Lon- 
don, which took in slaves for Barbadoes, in which I took 
my passage, and was forced to pay for the same sixty-six 
pieces of eight and two slaves." 

The captain of the pirate, Evan Jones, and sev- 
eral of the crew were known to Cruger, who records 
that they were from " Westchester, New York." Of 
the two other ships that sailed on the same errand 
— slaves and East India goods, — one was captured 
by an East India Company's frigate, and the other 
by New York pirates — so we see that this question- 
able trade was not always prosperous. For it was a 
questionable trade. True, the merchants of New 
York were not supposed to know that these goods 
were obtained by piracy : they simply sent their 
cargoes to Madagascar, and purchased of factors 
these East India goods in return. Yet there were 
few in New York so simple as not to know whence 
these rich cargoes were derived. 

While the trade lasted, it lent a sort of picturesque 
and Oriental magnificence to the city. Rare fabrics 
of Teheran and Samarcand, costly perfumes, spices, 
ointments, and precious woods filled her warehouses; 
Arabian gold was current coin ; her women were 
arrayed in robes woven for Eastern queens ; jewels 
and gems of costliest workmanship in gold, silver, 
ivory, and pearl sparkled on their fingers and bosoms ; 
and in the merchants' houses were the Persian rugs 
and carpets, the bizarre bric-a-brac and curiously 
carved furniture of the East. New York was never 
so near the Orient as in those days. The pirate cap- 



1/4 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

tains were notable persons at this time. People 
pointed them out on the streets as now we point out 
a visiting magnate or literary celebrity. They were 
not termed pirates, but privateers ; and as they 
dressed well, spent money freely, and were men of 
infinite jest, excellent story-tellers, they were freely 
invited to the tables of the resident gentry, and even 
to that of the governor himself. Indeed, his com- 
merce with the pirates was the scandal of Governor 
Fletcher's reign; but as he afterward cleared himself 
in an examination before the Commissioners of Trade 
in England, it is probable that his relations with them 
were not so bad as painted. 

Edward Coates was one of the first of these free- 
booters of whom we have any account. In 1694, 
his ship appeared off the east coast of Long Island, 
having a few days previously divided eighteen 
hundred pieces of eight among her crew. Coates 
entered into negotiations with the authorities for 
permission to come up to the city. The Governor, 
it was charged, was given the ship, which he after- 
ward sold for ;^8oo. Madam Fletcher was presented 
with chains of Arabian gold, rare gems, and precious 
silks and cashmeres from Indian looms. The council- 
lors, too, were handsomely feed, and then the pirate 
ship ventured to come up to her dock. Coates 
afterward averred that the ransom cost himself and 
his men ;^ 1,800. 

Thomas Tew was another of these famous sea- 
rovers. He came to New York in the November 
of 1694 with " great wealth from the Indian seas." 
We have a description of this worthy. He was 



THE ROMANTIC AGE. 1 75 

a slight, dark man of about forty who dressed 
richly and scattered gold profusely. His uniform 
was a blue cap with a band of cloth of silver. 
His blue jacket was bordered with gold lace, and 
further garnished with large pearl buttons. Loose 
trunks of white linen covered his lower limbs as 
far as the knee, where they gave place to curiously 
worked stockings. A rich chain of Arabian gold 
hiing from his neck, and through the meshes of a 
curiously knit belt gleamed a dagger, its hilt set with 
the rarest of gems. This person, dispensing draughts 
of Sopus ale to whoever would drink, and throwing 
golden louis d' or about as carelessly as though 
they were stuyvers, soon became a familiar object in 
the streets and taverns of New York. 

But this influx of ill-gotten wealth did not really 
benefit the city. Riches thus acquired never benefit 
in the end ; the sum of human experience is and 
always will be, that honesty is the best policy. In 
this case, these fortunes, quickly won, created a dis- 
taste for the slower methods of legitimate trade ; 
they fostered rash enterprises and hazardous ven- 
tures, and very soon brought punishment and dis- 
grace. It was not to be expected that the powerful 
East India Company would long submit to such 
depredations on its property. It called the attention 
of the king and Privy Council to them, and again 
and again urged that a suitable naval force should 
be sent into the Indian seas to protect its property 
and capture the marauders. But alas, all the ship's 
frigates were engaged in the war with France ; and 
then again, there was the difficulty of catching the 



176 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

freebooters, who sailed in swift ships, and had a 
thousand hiding-places along the savage coasts. 

This scarcity of ships and urgency of the merchants 
introduces one of the most striking and dramatic 
chapters in the history of New York, and also that 
most notorious character of his age, Captain William 
Kidd. This person is a striking example of the 
power of a nation's ballad-makers. English min- 
strels have made his name a household word. Our 
own Poe and Irving have conjured with him most 
effectively. Fortune-hunters have prodded the sands 
of the Atlantic coast from Montauk Point to the 
Florida reefs in search of his buried treasure, while 
Sound skippers still see his low, black, rakish craft 
flying down the Sound in the scud of the departing 
storms. So much has been said of him in song and 
story, that the reader will no doubt be glad to know 
something of his actual career. When history takes 
him up. Captain Kidd was master of the trading 
h2.x(\\x^ Ajttigiia, sailing between New York and Lon- 
don, and well known to the merchants of both cities 
as a bold and skilful navigator. In his certificate of 
marriage to Sarah Oort, widow, in 1691, he is styled 
" Captain William Kidd, Gentleman." He had a 
house and lot on Tienhoven Street (now Liberty), 
where his wife and their only child (a daughter) lived, 
and was a man of wealth and consideration. While 
the king and his ministers were considering the 
demands of the East India Company, Kidd was on 
the Atlantic bound to London. With him, as a 
passenger, sailed Robert Livingston, a leading char- 
acter in the province of New York, well born in 




^ ^ n fl c^ ^.B-^HiS ^ ^ n ^S 



178 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

England, Town Clerk of Albany, Secretary of Indian 
AfTairs, Commissary of the Provincial Army, and 
founder of the manor of Livingston. The two men 
knew of the king's strait, and over the Antigua s 
dinner-table formed a plan which, on their arrival in 
London, was pressed on the ministers and the king 
with all the influence they could command. The 
plan was, in brief, that Kidd, who knew most of the 
pirates frequenting New York and their haunts, 
should be given an armed vessel well manned, and, 
furnished with a private commission from the king, 
should go in pursuit of the pirates, and capture them 
wherever they could be found. Five of the leading 
noblemen of the realm — Somers the Lord Chancel- 
lor, the Earl of Bellomont, the Earl of Romney, the 
Duke of Shrewsbury, and the Earl of Oxford, with 
Livingston and Kidd, agreed to furnish the funds for 
the enterprise, and were to be repaid by a certain share 
of the property taken from the pirates. The king 
also was made a partner in the enterprise, receiving a 
share of the profits. The Adventure Galley, a large 
ship, was provided and manned with seventy men, 
and in her Kidd set sail, arriving in New York in 
the spring of 1696. He soon filled the city with 
placards asking for men to engage in his adventure, 
and beat up the town for recruits. Captain Kidd 
and his novel design of pirate-hunting became the 
talk of the day, and the army of nondescripts that 
then filled the city — pirates, privateersmen, ne'er-do- 
wells, young men from the country eager for adven- 
ture and booty — hastened to enroll themselves under 
his banner. One hundred more men were secured 



THE ROMANTIC AGE. 1 79 

in this way ; but the wiseacres of the port shook 
their heads over the affair. They said that when 
Captain Kidd put to sea, if he failed to capture any 
pirates to provide prize-money for his crew, they 
would mutiny and turn pirates themselves — which 
was, in fact, what happened. After patrolling the 
American coast for a while without result, Kidd bore 
up for the Red Sea, and nothing was seen of him in 
New York for nearly three years. Meantime, Colonel 
Fletcher had been recalled, chiefly -because of his 
supposed collusion with pirates, and Richard, Earl 
of Bellomont, an Irish nobleman of the highest 
character, who had been very active against the 
freebooters, was appointed Captain-General of New 
York and New England, with special instructions to 
suppress piracy and smuggling in the colonies. Bel- 
lomont reached New York April 2, 1698, and was 
received with much rejoicing and stately ceremonial. 




IX. 

THE EARLIER CHURCHES OF NEW YORK. 

In the period covered by the preceding chapter 
some interesting and even historic church edifices 
were built in New York. The first of these was the 
Dutch Reformed Church of St. Nicholas, on Garden 
Street. In 1691 the congregation became dissatis- 
fied with the stone church in the fort. It was grow- 
ing small for their numbers, and besides, it seemed 
unseemly that the temple of the Prince of Peace 
should be placed in the midst of warlike armament 
and preparations. They decided, therefore, to build 
a new church. On what is now Exchange Place — 
the narrow street whose towering buildings cast the 
shadows of late afternoon at mid-day — Mother Drisius 
then owned an extensive peach orchard, and she, on 
being appealed to, consented to sell it to the Consis- 
tory for a church site. The new building was com- 
pleted and dedicated in 1693, and was much the 
finest church edifice then in the country. It was 
built of brick, in the form of an oblong square, with 
a large steeple in front, in the base of which was a 
room large enough for the Consistory to hold its 
meetings. The windows were long and narrow, with 
small panes, on which Master Gerard Duykinck had 

180 



THE EARLIER CHURCHES OF NEW YORK. l8l 

burned the arms of the principal families of the con- 
gregation. The bell, pulpit, and other furniture of 
the old church were transferred to the new, and 
many painted family escutcheons were afterwards 
added. In 1694, the silver workers of Amsterdam 
wrought out for it a silver baptismal bowl, on which 
were engraved sentences from the pen of Domine 
Selyns, indicating its spiritual significance. This in- 
teresting relic is still in use in Dr. Terry's church, 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-First Street, the 
lineal descendant of the Garden Street church.'^ 

This church also enjoys the distinction of having 
been the first religious society chartered in the 
colony, its charter taking precedence of Trinity's by 
some months. The instrument gave it legal power to 
call its minister, to hold property acquired by gift 
or devise, and made payment of church rates com- 
pulsory on its members. Meantime the members of 
the Church of England had been worshipping in the 
chapel in the fort. In 1696 they too became dissatis- 
fied with the chapel, and decided to erect a church 
of their own. Governor Fletcher was warmly in 
favor of the project, and gave them the revenue of 
the King's Farm, which was one of the Governor's 

* I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Chambers, of New York, for the 
following translation of the inscription, in old German characters, 

on the bowl : 

" In mere water put no trust, 
'T were better never to be born ; 
But see far more in Baptism, 
By which man comes never to be lost. 
How Christ, with his precious blood, 
Cleanses me from my sins, 
And by his Spirit makes me live, 
And washes my foul misdeeds." 



1 82 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

perquisites, for the term of seven years. This farm 
consisted of a garden, an orchard, pasturage for 
horses and cows, and a triangular grave-yard in one 
corner. The site of the present Trinity was chosen 
for the new church. Great interest in its erection 
seems to have been taken by all classes of people. 
Gifts of money and material were brought. Gover- 
nor Fletcher, in addition to other gifts, gave it a 
Bible ; the Earl of Bellomont some books of divinity ; 
Lord Cornbury, a black pall, on condition that no 
one belonging to the city should be denied the use 
of it. " For building the steeple," Lewis Gomez 
gave £\ 2s. ; Abraham Luilna, ^i ; Rodrego 
Pacheco, ^i ; Moses Levy, i\d. ; Mordecan Nathan, 
\\d. ; Jacob Franks, ^Te ; and Moses Michael, ^s. ^d. 
The building was completed in 1696. It is said to 
have been one hundred and forty-eight feet long and 
seventy-two feet wide, and fronted toward the west. 
Its steeple, the pride of the city, was one hundred 
and seventy-five feet high. Over the main entrance 
was a Latin inscription, " Per aiigustajn Hoc Trinita- 
tis Templum Fundatum est anno regni illustrissiini^' 
etc., the full inscription in English being as follows : 

'' This Trinity Church was founded in the 8th year 
of the Most Illustrious Sovereign Lord William the Third, 
by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, 
and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of 
our Lord 1 696, and was built by the voluntary contribu- 
tions and gifts of some persons, and chiefly enriched and 
promoted by the bounty of his Excellency, Colonel Ben- 
jamin Fletcher, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief 
of this Province, in the time of whose government the in- 



THE EARLIER CHURCHES OF NEW YORK. 1 83 

habitants of this city, of the Protestant religion of the 
Church of England, as now established by law, were in- 
corporated by a charter under the seal of the province, 
and many other valuable gifts he gave to it of his private 
fortune." 

^Within, on the walls, were the arms and escutch- 
eons of the principal families. ^^ Nearest the chan- 
cel, a pew was set apart for the governor, and known 
as the '' Governor's Pew," and which continued to be 
occupied by the chief magistrate so long as New 
York remained a colony. The first Trinity was en- 
larged and improved in 1737, and was destroyed by 
the great fire of 1776. The following description of 
^.he remodelled church, as it appeared in 1750, is 
^ Iven by William Smith, the historian of New York : 

" It stands very pleasantly on the banks of the Hudson, 
and has a large cemetery open on each side, enclosed in 
front by a painted paled fence. Before it a long walk is 
railed off from Broadway, the pleasantest street in town. 
. . . The church within is ornamented beyond any 
other place of worship among us. The head is adorned 
with an altar-piece, and opposite is the organ. The tops 
of the pillars which support the galleries are decked with 
gilt busts of angels winged. From the ceiling are sus- 
pended two glass branches, and on the walls hang the 
arms of some of the principal benefactors. The alleys 
are paved with flat stones. The rector is Rev. Henry 
Barclay, who has a salary of ;z^ioo a year, levied on all 
the other clergy and laity of the city, by virtue of an Act 
of Assembly procured by Governor Fletcher." 

Another interesting church of that day was that 
of the French Huguenots — Eglise Fran(^oise a la 



1 84 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Nouvelle York — which began its organized existence 
in 1688, although, it is said, sermons were preached 
in the French tongue as early as 1628. Its members 
were chiefly Huguenots — Protestants of France who 
had been driven from their homes and firesides by 
the cruel persecution of Louis XIV. Their history 
is a very interesting one, although we can refer to it 
but briefly. In 1598, Henry IV. of France issued 
his " Edict of Nantes " (so called because first pub- 
lished in the city of Nantes), which, in large measure, 
granted religious liberty to his Protestant subjects. 
In 1785, this edict was revoked by Louis XIV., and 
all persons were required to conform to the Catholic 
faith on pain of death or banishment. Rather than 
obey this despotic act, 400,000 people of the best 
blood of France left their homes and took refuge in 
Holland, England, Prussia, and other Protestant 
countries. Thousands came to New York, and held 
here their ancient worship. November 10, 1687, 
Rev. Pierre Peiret, of the county of Foixin Southern 
France, arrived, and the scattered sheep found in him 
a shepherd. He organized the church at once. 
October 10, 1788, Domine Selyns Avrote : "Our 
French brethren are doing well, and their congrega- 
tions increase remarkably by the daily arrival of 
French refugees." In that year they built a small 
church which stood on the site of the present Prod- 
uce Exchange. It was the only Huguenot Church 
in the colony, and the people used to come in covered 
wagons on a Saturday from Long Island, Staten 
Island, New Rochelle, and other places, outspan 
their horses, and spend the night in their wagons 



THE EARLIER CHURCHES OF NEW YORK, 185 

that they might be ready for service in the morning. 
On the 8th of July, 1704, Lord Cornbury laid the 
corner-stone of a new church for them, called Le 
Temple dii St. Esprit. This church stood for years 
on the northeast side of Pine Street, and is still re- 
membered by older citizens. By 1710 it had become 
one of the wealthiest and strongest in the city. John 
Fontaine, a traveller, who visited New York in 17 16, 
speaks of attending service there, and observes that 
*'it is very large and beautiful, and within it there 
was a very great congregation." The same traveller 
tells us that there was then a French Club in New 
York. The old church was taken down in 1 831, and 
its bell, the gift of Sir Henry Anhurst, was given to 
the French church at New Rochelle (now Trinity 
Episcopal), which, it is said, still retains possession 
of it. 

The first Presbyterian Church in New York was 
erected in Wall Street in 1719, and is identical 
with that which now worships in Dr. Van Dyke's 
stone church on Fifth Avenue, near Eleventh Street. 
The first Baptist Church in the city was built in 1760, 
on Gold Street, near John. The Methodists held 
services in New York as early as 1766, under the 
leadership of Philip Embury, a local preacher ; but 
their first house of worship, the present John Street 
church, on John, near Nassau, was not built until 
1768. i 



X. 

LORD BELLOMONT'S STORMY REIGN. 

Not long after Governor Bellomont's arrival, it 
became apparent that his selection was a very un- 
wise one. He was a cold, austere, somewhat bigoted 
man, of excellent intentions, but lacking in tact, 
pliancy, and the personal magnetism so necessary in 
a ruler of men. He was prejudiced against Gov- 
ernor Fletcher and his friends, the chief men of the 
city, and took no pains to conceal his belief that 
they were in league with thieves and pirates. His 
first public act was an exceedingly impolitic one — he 
espoused the cause of the Leislerites, which had been 
held in abeyance under Governor Fletcher, and so 
fomented the faction that it was roused into activity 
again, and became a disturbing and dangerous ele- 
ment. He issued a writ restoring to their families 
the estates of Leisler and Milborne, and as these 
had by this time passed into the hands of innocent 
parties, the injustice of it nearly provoked a riot in 
the city. His attempts to suppress piracy, smug- 
gling, and the '' manors," or great landed estates, 
which had been granted by Governor Fletcher and 
his predecessors, were equally unwise and futile. 
These were admittedly great evils ; but an entrenched 

i86 



LORD BELLOMONT'S STORMY REIGN. 1 8/ 

evil cannot be swept away in a moment, and the at- 
tempt if made is apt to provoke a revolution. The 
new Governor ordered summary seizures of goods, 
and arbitrary arrests of persons on suspicion ; he 
dismissed high officers of government without a 
hearing, and removed members of the council to 
supply their places with his partisans ; he also pre- 
pared a bill for vacating the lands granted by former 
governors, and prohibiting any one person from 
holding more than one thousand acres in the prov- 
ince. One of the land grants aimed at was that of 
Domine Dellius, of Albany, which had been pur- 
chased by him of the Indians, and had been con- 
firmed by Fletcher. Another was a grant made by 
Fletcher to Trinity Church. Thus in a brief period 
Lord Bellomont found arrayed against him in de- 
fence of their rights the clergy, the landed aristoc- 
racy, the merchants, and the king's officers. The 
province was torn with the dissensions of the fac- 
tions thus created. Domine Dellius sailed for Eng- 
land to lay his grievances before the king. Rev. 
William Vesey, Rector of Trinity Church, left the 
Governor out in his prayers on the Sabbath, and 
openly prayed that Domine Dellius might have a pros- 
perous voyage and be successful with the king. The 
Governor seems to have had no friends, except the 
reinstated Leislerites. Meantime Colonel Fletcher, 
smarting under the imputations cast upon him, had 
been clamoring to have his accounts with the govern- 
ment settled that he might proceed to England, 
armed with his vouchers, and have his accounts in- 
vestigated by the Lords of Trade. Having, he said, 



1 88 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

held a commission under the crown for thirty-five 
years without reproach, " he did not think he should 
become a castaway in the rear of his days." It is 
proper to add that in a subsequent examination 
before the above-named body the charges against 
him were dismissed as groundless. 

In 1699, Bellomont proceeded to Boston to attend 
to affairs of government in that quarter, and while 
there had the pleasure of arresting his former friend 
and w^hilom associate. Captain Kidd. This person- 
age was either a very great rascal, or a man greatly 
wronged, probably the latter. On leaving New 
York in quest of pirates, he had proceeded to the 
Indian seas, where, as he declared, his men mu- 
tinied and forced him to embark in a course of 
piracy. While the Governor was in Boston, Kidd 
came into Gardiner's Bay, on the eastern coast of 
Long Island, with a sloop, having left his " great 
Moorish ship," the Quidah Merchant, in the West In- 
dies, and from that point despatched a message to 
Lord Bellomont, saying that his men had forced him 
into piracy, and offering to give up all his treasure, 
of which he had a large amount, if he could be as- 
sured a free pardon. Bellomont said in reply that 
if Kidd would deliver himself up, and could establish 
his innocence, he should not be molested. Kidd 
accordingly came to Boston, where he was arrested 
and thrown into prison, and on examination was 
remanded to England for trial. He was hanged on 
Execution Dock in 1701. 

On the 5th of March, 1701, Governor Bellomont 
died suddenly, and was buried with due honors in 



LORD BELLOMONT'S STORMY REIGN. 



189 



the chapel of the fort. When the latter was levelled 
in 1790, his leaden coffin was removed, it is said, to 
St. Paul's Churchyard, although no monument marks 
his grave. What the outcome of his government 
would have been had he lived, it is impossible to say, 
but as it was, he left the colony in a much more un- 
satisfactory condition than he found it. 




XL 

MIDDLE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

The period between 1701 and 1764 is barren of 
events of great inportance, and may be passed over 
with brief reference to events of special significance. 
During this period the French and Indian wars 
troubled the peace of the city, and more than once 
she was called upon to furnish men and money for 
the protection of her northern frontiers. For some 
time the Leislerites also made much trouble, but in 
time the bitterness of the quarrel subsided. On the 
7th of March, 1702, King William III. died, after a 
reign of thirteen years, and Queen Anne was at once 
proclaimed. So excellent a ruler was she that her 
subjects called her " good Queen Anne." She gave 
many gifts to struggling churches, and among others, 
in 1705, Lord Cornbury being Governor, bestowed on 
Trinity Church the Annetje Jans estate, a tract of 
some sixty acres above Chambers Street on the west 
side of Broadway. This was in addition to the 
King's Farm, before mentioned, and although at that 
time of little value, now yields large revenues. 
Lord Lovelace succeeded Lord Cornbury as Gover- 
nor, and on the former's death, in 1709, Colonel 
Robert Hunter was appointed Governor. This gen- 

190 



MIDDLE COLONIAL PERIOD. 19I 

tleman was a man of culture and refinement, who, in 
England, had enjoyed the friendship of Swift, Addi- 
son, Steele, and other wits of Queen Anne's reign, 
and who corresponded with them while in this coun- 
try. He was accompanied by quite a fleet of vessels 
bearing three thousand Palatines, Protestant Ger- 
mans who had been forced from their homes on the 
Rhine by the French armies, and had sought refuge 
in England. It was the design of the English min- 
ister to plant them on the colony's northern frontiers 
to serve as a barrier against the French and Indians, 
and also to employ them in producing naval stores 
which were then much in demand. And as the poor 
people were utterly penniless. Queen Anne agreed 
to give them a free passage to this country, and to 
maintain them for a specified time until they should 
be in a position to support themselves. Newburgh, 
Germantown, the valleys of the Schoharie and Mo- 
hawk, and a portion of Pennsylvania, were largely 
settled by these people. 

During Governor Hunter's reign, a serious upris- 
ing of the negro slaves occurred. These were mostly 
Africans, as barbarous as when in their native wilds; 
and in 1712, a few of them, who had been badly 
treated by their masters, formed a plot to massacre 
the people indiscriminately. They met at midnight 
in an orchard not far from the present Maiden Lane, 
armed with guns, swords, butcher's knives, and other 
weapons, and, setting fire to an out-house, struck 
down the citizens who came running to put it out. 
Nine men were thus murdered and six severely 
wounded before any could escape and give the alarm ; 



192 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

but at length the news reached the fort, and the 
Governor sent a detachment of soldiers to the scene, 
at the sight of whom the conspirators fled to the 
forests on the northern part of the island. Sentries 
were stationed at the ferries that night, and next 
day the militia was called out, and by beating the 
wood, succeeded in capturing all but six of the crimi- 
nals, who committed suicide rather than suffer the 
vengeance of the whites. Those taken, twenty-one 
in number, were condemned and executed, several 
being burned at the stake. A similar plot was dis- 
covered in 1 741, of which the reader will find an ex- 
tended account in the chapter on colonial manners 
and customs. 

In 1725 quite an event occurred in the birth 
of the first newspaper, the New York Gazette. It 
was, indeed, an infant when compared with our 
present mammoth dailies, being printed on a half 
sheet of foolscap. It was filled with custom-house 
entries and foreign news, and appeared weekly. 
William Bradford, the government printer, was the 
editor and publisher. 

In 1730 another event occurred in the granting of 
a new city charter, giving increased privileges, which, 
from the fact of its having been granted during Gov- 
ernor Montgomery's term of ofifice, is known as the 
Montgomery Charter. 

Nine years after its inception the Gazette found a 
rival in a new paper, called the Weekly Journal. The 
Journal was edited by John Peter Zenger, one of 
the Palatines who had come over with Governor 
Hunter in 1710, and who had been apprenticed to 



MIDDLE COLONIAL PERIOD. 1 93 

Bradford the printer. The new paper supported the 
party opposed to the Governor ; in fact, it had been 
established as the organ of the Whig or popular 
party. There was nothing that the Journal could 
do to bring the '' aristocrats," as it called the Gov- 
ernor's party, into contempt that it did not do. It 
criticised Governor, Councillors, Assemblymen, 
everybody and every thing connected with the ruling 
class. It made use of squibs, lampoons, ballads, wit- 
ticisms, satire, when such would serve its ends, and 
is noteworthy as furnishing the first instance where 
the power of the press was invoked in aid of or 
against a political party. Bradford, who, as the State 
printer, espoused the Governor's cause, replied in his 
Gazette, but his articles lacked the pith and vigor of 
those in the Journal^ some of which were written by 
the ablest men of the city. At length the Govern- 
or's council pronounced four issues of the Weekly 
Journal " libellous,"as containing many things '' tend- 
ing to sedition and faction, and to bring his Majesty's 
government into contempt," and ordered them 
burned by the public hangman, at the same time 
directing that the mayor and other city magistrates 
should attend the ceremony ; but the magistrates 
declined to obey the council's behest, declaring it to 
be an arbitrary and illegal act, an opinion which was 
shared by most of the citizens. But when, a few 
days later, Zenger was seized and thrown into prison 
on a charge of libel, the city was wild with excite- 
ment. The same spirit which thirty years later re- 
sisted the Stamp Act, was exhibited then. Men 
clearly perceived that the right of the public press 



194 ^-^-^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

to openly criticise measures of government was in 
danger, and rallied, not so much to the support of 
Zenger as to the defence of a free press. The tidings 
created the greatest excitement throughout the colo- 
nies, and the issue of the trial was awaited with the 
deepest interest. 

If Governor Cosby had been a wise man, able to 
gauge the popular feeling, he would not have forced 
the issue ; but he was not wise, and the trial of Zen- 
ger for libel was decided on. The leaders of the 
popular party in New York at this time, were two 
lawyers — William Smith and James Alexander. 
Smith had been Recorder of the city, and had filled 
other offices with credit, and was noted for his cap- 
tivating eloquence. Alexander had been Surveyor- 
General, and had also a great reputation as a lawyer. 
These two gentlemen now volunteered as counsel for 
Zenger, but at the outset were betrayed into an in- 
discretion which led to their removal from the bar. 
They boldly questioned the legality of the commis- 
sions of Chief-Justice De Lancey and of Justice Phil- 
lipse, the two judges composing the court, on the 
ground that they were not worded in the usual form, 
and had been issued by the Governor without con- 
sent of the council. The judges considered this act 
gross contempt of court, and excluded the offenders 
from further practice. " You have brought it to that 
point, sirs," said Judge De Lancey, '' that either we 
must go from the bench or you from the bar." John 
Chambers was assigned as counsel for Zenger; at the 
same time the disbarred attorneys hastened to Phil- 
adelphia, and secured for the defence Andrew Ham- 



MIDDLE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



195 



ilton, who was reputed the greatest and most elo- 
quent lawyer of his day. At the same time through 
the press, at clubs, and by private conversation they 
made the public fully acquainted with the merits and 
demerits of the case. 

When the trial came on, In July, 1735, Hamilton 




merchants' exchange, 1827. 



appeared armed for the fray, and was greeted 
by the crowded court-room as the champion of 
popular rights. His first contention was that the 
newspaper articles charged as false, scandalous, 
malicious, and seditious libels, contained only the 
truth, and could not, therefore, be libellous. Brad- 
ley, the king's Attorney-General, took exception to 



196 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

this, and quoted the old EngHsh law, that even the 
truth, if repeated maliciously, with intent to de- 
fame and injure another, became a libel, and was 
punishable as such. The legal battle raged all sum- 
mer, with varying fortunes for the combatants. At 
length there came a day when the case was given to 
the jury. The court's charge had been against the 
prisoner, but after a few moments' deliberation the 
jury returned a verdict of " not guilty." It was re- 
ceived with the wildest expressions of delight by the 
crowds within and without the court-house. Ham- 
ilton became the hero of the hour, and would have 
been borne to his hotel on the shoulders of the peo- 
ple but for his emphatic protest. As it was, the cor- 
poration of the city tendered him a public dinner, 
at which he was presented by the mayor with the 
freedom of the city in a gold box ; the same evening 
a grand ball was given in his honor. This trial is 
generally regarded as having secured the freedom of 
the press in America ; it is also interesting to us, as 
tending to create and sharply define the two great 
parties of a generation later. 

The event of the year 1752 was the building, by 
subscription, at the foot of Broad Street, of the 
Royal Exchange, for merchants. The building was 
supported on arches, the lower story being open — 
much as markets in southern cities now are. One 
room in the upper story was set apart as a meeting 
room for the merchants ; a coffee-room, which later 
became a famous resort, was opened in one end. 
The Exchange stood until 1827, when it was suc- 
ceeded by a finer building on Wall Street. It was 



198 THE STORY OF NE IV YORK. 

the home of the first organization of merchants in 
the port, the present Chamber of Commerce not hav- 
ing been founded until 1769. 

The closing days of British rule in New York were 
marked by the founding of the city's noblest insti- 
tution of learning — Columbia College. For several 
years prior to 1751, sumis of money had been raised 
by public lotteries and other means for the founding 
of a college in the city. In that year it was learned 
that i^3,443 had been raised, and a bill was passed by 
the Assembly naming ten trustees to take charge of 
it. The next year the vestry of Trinity Church of- 
fered to donate from the estate granted them by 
Queen Anne a site and the necessary grounds for a 
campus. This offer was accepted by the trustees, 
and in 1753 they invited the Rev. Dr. Samuel John- 
son, a clergyman possessing excellent qualifications 
for the place, to be the first president. His salary 
was ;^25o per annum. The vestry gave to the col- 
lege the use of their large room in the church build- 
ing, and here in the autumn of 1753 the college was 
opened with an entering class of ten. The charter, 
signed by Acting Governor De Lancey, October 31, 
1754, named the new college " King's" after the ven- 
erable institution on the banks of the Cam. On 
August 23, 1756, the corner-stone of the new building 
was laid by Governor Hardy with appropriate cere- 
monies. Its site included the whole block now 
bounded by College Place, Barclay, Church, and 
Murray streets — a beautiful situation at that time, 
with its surroundings of groves and green fields, and 
its fine view of the Hudson. 



MIDDLE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



199 



The first Commencement was held in June, 1758, 
and the new building was first opened to the students 
in May, 1760. In 1763 Dr. Johnson resigned, and 
Dr. Myles Cooper, a fellow of Queens College, Ox- 
ford, who had accepted a professorship in the college 
the preceding year, succeeded to the presidency. 
During the Revolution the college was dismissed and 
its building used as a hospital. On its reorganization 
in 1787, it was given the name Columbia, any 
thing savoring of royalty being then exceedingly 
odious to American ears. 




XII. 

THE PEOPLE DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

Quite a number of distinguished gentlemen ac- 
companied Sir Edmond Andros to New York in 1678. 
Among them was the Rev. James Wooley, a recent 
graduate of Cambridge University, who came as chap- 
lain to the king's forces in New York. On returning 
to England, Mr. Wooley published a little book 
called, " A Two Years' Journal in New York," which 
was eagerly read by the public of that day, curious 
to know something of the Duke's new possessions. 
We transcribe from this book some pleasant descrip- 
tions of the city and its domestic life in 1678-80, pre- 
serving the quaint English in which they were 
written. 

*' The country," he says, " is of a sweet and wholesome 
breath, free from those annoyances which are commonly 
ascribed by naturalists for the insalubrity of any country, 
viz., south or southeast winds, stagnant waters, lowness 
of shoals, inconstancy of weather, and the excessive heat 
of the summer ; it is gently refreshed, fanned, and allayed 
by constant breezes from the sea. It does not welcome 
guests and strangers with the seasoning distempers of 
fevers and fluxes, like Virginia, Maryland, and other 
plantations. Nature kindly drains and purgeth it by 

200 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 20I 

fontanels and issues of running waters in its irriguous 
valleys, and shelters it with the umbrellas of all sorts of 
trees from pernicious lakes, which trees and plants do 
undoubtedly, tho' insensibly, suck in and digest into their 
own growth and composition those subterranean parti- 
cles and exhalations which otherwise would be attracted 
by the heat of the sun, and so become matter for infec- 
tions, clouds, and malign atmospheres. ... I myself, a 
person seemingly of a weakly stamen, and a valetudinary 
constitution, was not in the least indisposed in that cli- 
mate during my residence there the space of three 
years." 

The people he found very hospitable, though '' a 
clan of high-flown religionists." The two clergymen 
— the Lutheran and the Dutch Reformed — he criti- 
cised as severely as the Labadists did him. 

''They behaved themselves one toward another so 
shily and uncharitably, as if Luther and Calvin had be- 
queathed and entailed their virulent and bigoted spirits 
upon them and their heirs forever. They had not visited 
or spoken to each other with any respect for six years 
together before my being there, with whom I being much 
acquainted, I invited them both, with their vrows, to a 
supper one night unknown to each other, with an obliga- 
tion that they should not speak one word in Dutch, under 
the penalty of a bottle of Madeira, alleging I was so im- 
perfect in that language that we could not manage a 
sociable discourse. So accordingly they came, and at 
the first interview they stood so appalled, as if the ghosts 
of Luther and Calvin had suffered a transmigration, but the 
amaze soon went off with a salve tu quoque and a bottle of 
wine, of which the Calvinist dominie was a true carouser, 
and so we continued our mensalia the whole evening in 



202 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Latin, which they both spoke so fluently and promptly 
that I blushed at myself, with a passionate regret, that I 
could not keep pace with them. The inhabitants," he 
continues, "both English and Dutch, were very civil, 
amongst whom I have often wished myself and family, 
to whose tables I was frequently invited, and always con- 
cluded with a generous bottle of Madeira." 

And he has this account of one of the amusements 
of the day : 

" We had very good diversion in an orchard of Mr. John 
Robinson, of New York, where we followed a bear from 
tree to tree, upon which he could swarm like a cat, and 
when he was got to his resting-place, perched upon a high 
branch, we despatched a youth after him with a club to 
an opposite bough, who, knocking his paws, he comes 
grumbling down backwards with a thump, so we after 
him again." 

It seems scarcely credible that only two hundred 
years ago, between Cedar Street and Maiden Lane, 
men took bears by shaking them, like fruit, from the 
orchard trees. 

Every New Year's Day, our author goes on to 
say, the English observed "a neighborly commerce 
of presents." Some sent him *' a sugar loaf," some 
** a pair of gloves," some "a bottle or two of wine." 
One day he saw two *' Dutch boors " grappling each 
other under his windows. 

" I called up an acquaintance and asked him to fetch a 
kit full of water and discharge it at them, which im- 
mersion cooled their courage and loosed their grap- 
ples. So," he adds, " we used to part our mastiffs 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 203 

in England. The city of New York," he goes on 
to say, " in my time was as large as some market 
towns with us, and all built the London way : the garri- 
son side of a high situation and a pleasant prospect ; the 
island it stands on all a level and champain. The diver- 
sion, especially in the winter season, used by the Dutch, 
is aurigation, /. e., riding about in wagons. . . . And, 
upon the ice it is admirable to see men and women as it 
were flying upon their skates from place to place with 
markets upon their heads and backs." 

Some values given in this book will be of interest 
to readers of to-day. 

"Wampum," he says, "is more prized than gold and 
silver. Beaver skins are also a circulating medmm. 
Good, merchantable beaver is worth \os. 3^. per pound ; 
minks, 5^./ grey foxes, y.; otters, 8^.y raccoons, \s. ^d.; 
deer skins, dd.; bear skin, 7^.; black otter, 20s.; fishers, 
3J-.y wolf skin, 3^.y Barbadoes rum, \od. per gallon ; mo- 
lasses, 50^. per barrel; sugar, 12^. per 100 pounds; 
'new negroes,' i.e., those just imported, £\2 or ^14 ; if 
they can speak English, ^16 or ^17, and at New 
York £zS to ^40 (whereupon," he says, 'Met me 
observe, the Indians look on these negroes or blacks 
as an anomalous issue, mere Edomites, hewers of wood 
and drawers of water) ; Long Island wheat, 3^. a skipple 
(a third of a bushel) ; Sopus wheat, one half a crown ; 
Indian meal, 15^. per 100 pounds ; bread, i8i-. per 
100 pounds ; pork, ^3 per barrel of 240 pounds ; 
beef, 30^. per barrel ; butter, dd. per pound ; tobacco, 
2\d. per pound. The best liquors," he observes, "are 
Fiall (Fayal), Passado, and Madeira wines, at 2s. per 
bottle ; the best ale is of wheat malt from Sopus, about 
sixty miles from New York by water. Syder is \2S. per 



204 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

barrel ; for quaffing liquors, rum punch, and brandy 
punch, not compounded and adulterated as in England, 
but pure water and pure nants." 

When our author returned home he took with him 
as mementoes of the country, " a gray squirrel, a 
parrott, and a raccoon." While Mr. Wooley was 
preaching in New York, two young travellers from 
Germany, in queer scollop hats and long cloaks, 
came to the city — members of a sect of German 
pietists, called the Labadists, deputed by their co- 
religionists to seek a location in this country for a 
community. These men had sharp eyes, and went 
prying all about the colony, picturing the things 
they saw with both pen and pencil. Among other 
things, they heard Mr. Wooley preach at the fort, and 
were no better pleased with him than he was with 
the Dutch domines. 

"After the prayers and ceremonies," they wrote, "a 
young man went into the pulpit, who thought he was 
performing wonders ; he had a little book in his hand, 
out of which he read his sermon, which was about a 
quarter of an hour long. With this the services were 
concluded, at which we could not be sufficiently as- 
tonished." 

The Labadists spent some time in New York with 
kind friends, who regaled them on " milk and 
peaches, fish and fruit." One day, they called on 
Jean Vigne, the ancient miller, who was the first 
male child born of European parents in New York. 
On September 29, 1679, they set out for a journey 
through Long Island. Crossing the ferry, they went 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 205 

Up a hill, " along open roads and woody places, and 
through a village called Breucklen, which has a small 
ugly church standing in the middle of the road." At 
the farm-house of Simon de Hart, where they spent 
the night, they had for supper, a roasted haunch of 
venison, a goose, a wild turkey, and oysters, both 
raw and roasted ; and sat up with their host late into 
the night, before a hickory fire that roared half-way 
up the chimney. They visited New Utrecht, and 
were entertained by Jacques Cortelyou, who lived 
in a large stone house, one of several in the village, 
and was a doctor of medicine, a land surveyor, and 
mathematician. Owing to sickness in his family, 
they were obliged to sleep in the barn, which they 
did on straw spread with sheepskins, " in the midst 
of the continual grunting of hogs, squealing of pigs, 
bleating and coughing of sheep, barking of dogs, 
crowing of cocks, and cackling of hens." Afterward 
they returned slowly to New York, noting the Indian 
villages, the wild grapes, peach orchards, and fields 
of watermelons by the way, and finished their travels 
by a journey up the Hudson and through New 
Jersey. 

From the statements of these travellers it would 
appear that at that time a primitive state of affairs 
existed. But with the advent of the English the 
order of society gradually changed. Dutch social 
life was democratic in tone, simple, domestic, unos- 
tentatious. The English social structure, however, 
was founded on caste. There was a lower, middle, 
and upper class, each with separating walls so strong 
that few could break them down. Some of the 



2o6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

wealthier Dutch famiHes held strictly aloof from the 
strangers, and formed a distinct class, but the major- 
ity met the English officers and attaches in polite 
entertainments, and came soon to adopt the ideas of 
the courtly strangers as to social strata and etiquette; 
so that in a few years, among both the English, 
French, and Dutch — the three ruling social elements, 
— there came to be an aristocracy and classes. London 
fashions soon became popular, although, as William 
Smith, a resident historian, observed, " by the time 
we adopt them they become disused in England." 
London teachers, tailors, peruke makers, tradesmen, 
came over in numbers, and an increased display and 
elegance in dress, equipage, furniture, and dwellings 
was the result. This display and extravagance prob- 
ably reached its height between 1 700-1705, when the 
ventures of the privateers and Red Sea men had 
flooded the city with Arabian gold and East India 
goods. 

Broadway on a Sabbath morning, as the bells were 
ringing for church, must then have presented an an- 
imated and even brilliant spectacle, far exceeding 
that which modern beaux and belles present, for al- 
though on Fifth Avenue, of a Sunday after service, 
the ladies give us here and there a touch of color, 
the men are sober-suited as monks : in those days, 
however, both ladies and gentlemen shone rich as 
emperor moths. These worshippers, whom we ima- 
gine ourselves as watching, come in groups moving 
down the wide, shaded streets, some entering Trinity, 
others turning down into Garden Street, and passing 
into the new Dutch Church on that thoroughfare. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 20/ 

Both places of worship are equally fashionable : The 
Dutch Church is the wealthier, but then Trinity has 
the governor's pew, and the prestige that comes of 
state patronage and emolument. Let us describe, as 
showing the fashions of the day, the dress of this 
group of five bearing down abreast of the church- 
yard. They are Nicholas Bayard and Madam Bayard, 
William Merritt, Alderman, and Madam Merritt, and 
Isaac De Riemer, Mayor. Bayard, who has been 
Secretary of the province. Major and Colonel of 
the city militia, wears a cinnamon-colored cloth coat 
with skirts reaching quite to the knee, embroidered 
four or five inches deep with silver lace, and lined with 
sky-blue silk ; his waistcoat is of red satin woven in 
with gold ; his breeches, of the same color and mate- 
rial as his coat are trimmed with silver at the pockets 
and knees ; dove-colored stockings of silk, and low 
shoes adorned with large silver buckles, cover his 
nether extremities. His hat, of black felt, has a wide 
flapping brim, and is adorned with a band of gold 
lace. His '' full bottomed " wig is plentifully pow- 
dered with starch finely ground and sifted, to which 
burnt alabaster or whiting has been added to give it 
body, and is scented with ambergris. A '' steinkirk " 
of fine muslin encircles his neck, the ends of which 
are laced and tucked into his expansive shirt bosom : 
the latter is of fine Holland adorned with colebat- 
teen ruffles, the waistcoat being left open the better 
to display them. His gloved hands hold an ivory 
snuff-box, having an invisible hinge and a looking- 
glass in the lid, and well filled with sweet-scented 
snuff. After taking a dainty sniff at the snuff he 



208 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

applies to his nose a handkerchief of silk ornament- 
ed with the arms of Britain ; printed on its folds are 
the ensigns and standards captured from the French. 
He pulls out his watch to note the time, and we find 
that it is enclosed in a beautiful shagreen case stud- 
ded with gold, and has his seal and a large silver key 
attached to it by a wide silk ribbon. He carries a 
cane, too, with a gold head elegantly engraved in 
cypher and crown, but the diamond-hilted sword 
with its gay sword knot, then an almost indispensa- 
ble adjunct to a gentleman's dress, in deference to 
the day has been left behind. The two other gentle- 
men are dressed much in the same style, except that 
there is a pleasing variety in style and color. Merritt, 
for instance, wears a salmon-colored silk drugget 
coat, with silver brocade waistcoat and small-clothes 
while De Riemer has a sagathie cloth coat, with 
waistcoat and breeches of drap du Barre. 

But if the gentlemen are thus brilliant, what is to be 
said of the ladies, who are apt to lead the sterner sex 
in matters of personal adornment. Instead of a bonnet, 
Madam Bayard wears a " frontage," — a sort of head- 
dress formed of rows of plaited muslin, stiffened with 
wire, one above the other, and diminishing in size as 
they rise. She, too, wears the ''steinkirk," or neck- 
cloth. The bodice of her purple-and-gold atlas gown 
is laced over very tight stays, and the gown itself is 
open in front to display the black-velvet petticoat 
edged with two silver orrices and high enough to 
show the green-silk stockings and beautifully em- 
broidered shoes of fine Morocco with red clocks. 
Her coiffure is also powdered ; her complexion has 



2IO THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

been '' aided " with French red and pearl powder, 
and she is perfumed with rose-water and Eau de 
Came. Some of the ladies moving down the street 
are even more brilliantly attired. What; do you 
think of this kincob, Isabella-colored gown, flowered 
with green and gold over a scarlet-and-gold atlas 
petticoat edged with silver, or of this blue-and-gold 
atlas gown ; or of that stately East India princess in 
purple and gold, or of this pretty little lady in a 
satin gown over an Alijah petticoat, striped with 
green, gold, and white ? There are some notable 
people, too, amid the throng. Lord Bellomont, tall 
and courtly, never losing the royal governor in the 
man ; James De Lancey, later Chief-Justice and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, even now invested with a judicial 
air ; Dr. Samuel Staats, who, after a brief residence 
in India, has returned with a beautiful Indian '* Be- 
gum," or princess, for his wife ; Frederick Phillipse, 
Gabriel Minvielle, Thomas Willett, Richard Townley, 
and John Lawrence, king's councillors ; James Gra- 
ham and James Emott, eminent lawyers ; Abraham 
Gouverneur, George Heathcote, Johannes and Abra- 
ham De Peyster, and other famous men of that day. 
The period preceding the Revolution — from 1740 
to 1770 — was perhaps the most picturesque and in- 
teresting in the city's history. New York was then 
a British town, a London in miniature, yet much 
more cosmopolitan than London, for among her 
inhabitants were numbered every race, class, sect, 
and condition — except the Catholic. It was an of- 
fence punishable with life imprisonment for a Jesuit 
priest to enter New York at this time. 



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THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 211 

Let us view the city as it appears about this 
time, 1730-65. Along the East River shore, at the 
former date, it was laid out as far north as the pres- 
ent Catherine Street. West of Broadway cross streets 
had been opened as far north as the present Cliam- 
bers Street. Along the line of the latter was a wall 
of stout palisades defended by block-houses at in- 
tervals, extending across the island as a defence 
against the French and Indians. An old print of 
Fulton Ferry in 1746 (see illustration), shows the 
quaint Dutch ferry-house on the New York side, 
and wide fields and clusters of cottages on the 
Brooklyn shore, but no city. By 1763, as appears 
by Maerfchalckm's map of that date (see illustra- 
tion), the city had crept north as far as Warren 
Street on the west and Chatham on the east, while 
a village plot had been laid out on the west of 
the '' High Road to Boston," the present Bowery. 
The Collect and the marshes in its vicinity (now 
Canal Street and adjacent blocks) were then in their 
primitive state. A distant view of the city from the 
high land on the north, about 1760, shows how little 
of the island was then built upon. In the view 
from the harbor, however, the city appears as a con- 
siderable town. 

Most of the streets are paved, and lighted by 
lanterns suspended from every seventh house. There 
is a rattle watch that patrols the city at night, and 
a fire company, of '' four and twenty able-bodied 
men and, two fire-engines of Mr. Newsham's patent," 
recently inported from London. 

We will begin our walk this time with the fort on 



212 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the Battery — Fort George, — so called because of the 
pleasant custom the people have of naming their 
fort after the reigning sovereign. As in the old 
Dutch time, the fort is the capitol, the seat of gov- 
ernment. The governor still lives within. The 
colonial records are kept here ; it is the scene of all 
military displays and social festivities on fete days. 
A royal governor, in the palmy days of the colony, 
lived in considerable state, maintained a chaplain 
and secretary, besides aides in brilliant uniform, and 
servants in livery, and when he appeared in public, 
rode in a coach-and-four with coachman and footmen, 
and his arms emblazoned on the panels. He had to 
garrison the fort and maintain his authority two 
lieutenants at four shillings per day, one ensign at 
three shillings, three sergeants at one shilling and 
sixpence, two drummers at one shilling, a master 
gunner, one hundred privates at eight pence, four 
'' mattrosses " at one shilling, a ''chirurgeon " at two 
shillings, a store-keeper at two shillings, and a chap- 
lain at six shillings. The governor, as commander- 
in-chief, received the munificent salary of eight 
shillings per day, although, of course, there were 
perquisites. The governor's residence, known as the 
" Government House," was also the social centre. 
There were " high doings " there, often, in those far- 
off days of the colony. No fete day — whether of 
the coming of an heir to the throne, or the birth- 
day anniversary of the king, queen, or Prince of 
Wales, or the advent of a new governor, or the an- 
niversary of a national event — could be observed 
without the holding of a grand ball in the Govern- 



214 ^^^ STOI^Y OF NEW YORK. 

ment House, at which the beauty and the chivalry 
of the town were gathered. Thus we read that 
on October 30, 1734, on the anniversary of his 
Majesty's birthday, "in the evening the whole city 
was illuminated. His Excellency and Lady gave a 
splendid ball and supper at the Fort, where was the 
most numerous and fine appearance of Ladies and 
Gentlemen that had ever been known upon the like 
occasion." And on January 21st, of the same year, 
being the anniversary of the birthday of His Royal 
Highness. Frederic, Prince of Wales: "In the eve- 
ning there was a splendid and numerous appearance 
of Gentlemen and Ladies at the Fort, where they 
were received by His Excellency and Lady, and 
the Honorable Family. The night concluded with 
a splendid supper and ball, which lasted till four 
o'clock in the morning." 

Imposing ceremonies often preceded the ball, as 
on the anniversary of the king's birthday in 1734. 

" Between the hours of eleven and twelve in the fore- 
noon His Excellency, our Governor, was attended at his 
House in Fort George by the Council, Assembly, Mer- 
chants, and other Principal Gentlemen and Inhabitants 
of this and adjacent places. The Independent Com- 
panies posted here being under Arms, and the Cannon 
round the Ramparts firing while His Majesty's, the 
Queen's, the Prince's, and the Royal Families', and their 
Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange's 
Healths were drunk, and then followed the Healths of 
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, of the Duke of Graf- 
ton, of the Right Honorable Sir Robert Walpole, and 
many other Royal Healths." 



I 





o 
o 

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2l6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

And on the anniversary of the Coronation, June 
II, 1734: 

" At twelve at noon the Gentlemen of the Council, 
Assembly, and the City waited upon His Excellency, the 
Governor, at the Fort, where their Majesties', the Royal 
Family's, and the Prince and Princess of Orange's 
Healths were drunk under the discharge of the Cannon, 
the regular troops in their new clothing all the while 
standing under arms, who made a fine appearance. 
Afterwards His Excellency, attended by the Gentlemen 
of the Council, etc., went into the Field, and received 
the Militia of the City drawn up there, and expressed 
great satisfaction at their order, discipline, and appear- 
ance, and was pleased to order twelve barrels of beer to 
be distributed among them to drink their Majesties' 
and the Royal Healths." 

One can imagine much more than the staid old 
chronicler describes. The long procession of gentle- 
men, splendidly attired, with the city fathers in 
their silken robes of office at their head ; the stately 
governor in full uniform, perhaps with the orders of 
chivalry blazing on his breast ; the grave courtesies 
and interchange of stately compliment as the wine 
goes round ; the thunder of the cannon ; and in the 
afternoon the streets filled with citizens in gala dress, 
and the parade of the militia. In the evening at the 
governor's house, which is aglow with light, the 
scene is still more brilliant, for there ladies and gen- 
tlemen, clothed like Solomon in his glory, float up 
and down the long ball-room, balance, turn, lead 
down the middle, cast off, to the music of the contra 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 21/ 

dance, or La Belle Kathrine. The coming of a new 
Governor to the province — which, as we have seen, 
was pretty often — was also a great occasion. When 
Governor William Cosby arrived, for instance, in 
July, 1732, he landed 

" about ten o'clock in the evening, and was received at 
the Water side by several Gentlemen, who attended him 
to the Fort. The next day, between the Hours of eleven 
and twelve. His Excellency walked to the City Hall (a 
Company of Halberdiers and a Troop of Horse marching 
before, and the Gentlemen of His Majesty's Council, the 
Corporation, and a great number of Gentlemen and mer- 
chants of this city following, the streets being lined on 
each side with the Militia), where his Commission was 
published, and then His Excellency returned, attended, 
as before, back to the Fort. The Militia then drew up 
upon the Parade, and saluted him with three vollies." 

A pleasant little episode occurred at the Govern- 
ment House while Sir William Cosby occupied 
it, although the dry old chronicler from whom 
we have quoted nowhere refers to it. The Gov- 
ernor was blessed with two fair daughters, in whom 
wit and beauty combined to render them the belles 
of the city. The younger had left a lover in 
England, no less a personage than Lord Augustus 
Fitz Roy, son of the famous Charles, Duke of Graf- 
ton. According to the English social code the match 
was beneath the lover and could not be allowed. It 
is even hinted that Sir William was given the gov- 
ernorship in order to separate the young people and 
cure the future duke of his infatuation. If so, the 
scheme signally failed, for the lover followed his 



2l8 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

mistress to New York, and during his visit the pair 
were secretly married, it is said, through the conniv- 
ance of Madam Cosby, the Governor's lady. One 
night the English chaplain, Domine Campbell, was 
assisted to scale the rear wall of the fort, and in the 
chapel married the lovers secretly and without a 
license. To avert suspicion from Governor Cosby, 
the clergyman was prosecuted for the offence, but it 
was observed by the gossips that no serious punish- 
ment followed. Under date of August I2th, our 
chronicler gives the denouement of the affair: '' On 
Saturday morning sailed from hence Captain Steph- 
ens, for London, having on board my Lord Augustus 
and his Lady, Governor Cosby's daughter." 

The next winter a second wedding occurred at the 
Government House, Miss Grace Cosby being mar- 
ried to Mr. Thomas Freeman, of London. It would 
seem that there were astute politicians at the City 
Hall at that time, for, three days after, the Common 
Council and other of^cials waited upon the Governor, 
and the Recorder in a neat speech informed them 
that the Corporation, desirous of proving the defer- 
ence they entertained for the Governor and his noble 
family, had ordered that the Honorable Major Alex- 
ander Cosby, brother to his Excellency, recently 
arrived, and Thomas Freeman, the Governor's son- 
in-law, be presented with the freedom of the city in 
gold boxes. The boxes were, however, of silver, 
gilded, as is proved by this entry in the council 
minutes of March 15, 1733-4: ''Ordered the Mayor 
issue his warrant ... to pay to Mr, Charles Le 
Roux, Goldsmith, or order, the sum of seven pounds, 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



219 



one shilling, eleven pence half penny ... for 
two silver Guilt Boxes for the Freedoms of the 
Honorable Major Alexander Cosby and Thomas 
Freeman, Esq." 

Lady readers are no doubt curious to know just 
how the governor's mansion was furnished. Of its 
furniture in the time of Governor John Montgomery, 
Cosby's immediate predecessor, we have an of^cial 
description, Governor Montgomery having died in 
1730, and an inventory of his effects having been 
taken. It was as follows: 

A bed with China curtains .... 

Twelve leather chairs ..... 

Two dozen ivory-handled knives and forks 
Four pair crimson barreline window curtains 
Six yellow chairs ...... 

Five pair yellow camlet curtains . 

A large looking-glass with gilt frame 

Cloth housing with silver lace 

A fine yellow camlet bed ..... 

Water and champaigne glasses ...... 

A very large quantity of wine and different sorts of liquor 

in the cellar .2,50000 

and silverware, comprising candlesticks, coffee-pots, 
knives and forks, spoons, salvers, tea-trays, casters, 
etc., to a large amount. He had also one saddle 
horse, eight coach horses, two common horses, two 
breeding mares, two colts, a natural pacing mare, a 
four-wheeled chaise and harness, a servant's saddle, 
a coach with set of fine harness, two sets of travel- 
ling harness, brass-mounted, with postilion's coat and 
cap ; saddles with holsters, caps, and housings ; a fine 
suit of embroidered horse furniture with bridles, etc. 
The inventory continues : 



$7 


50 


. 18 


00 


4 


00 


■ 15 


00 


20 


00 


20 


00 


. 13 


00 


75 


00 



220 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



A negro musician . 

A negro boy . 

Two negro boys 

A mulatto woman , 

Negro woman called Betty 

Negro woman called Jenny 

Negro woman 

Three white servants apprenticed . 

Six new black cotton chairs, $5 each 

Japanned tea-tabls .... 

Complete set of China ware . 

A repeating table clock . 

A pair of gilded frame sconces 

A large chimney glass 

Twelve new-fashioned matted chairs 

A walnut card-table 

A pair of large sconces with gilt frames 

Walnut-framed sconces and branches 

An eight-day clock 

Japanned fruit-plates, cut-glass cruets 

Gold lace and gold buttons 

Gilt leather screen .... 

Pictures of Greenwich Park, $1.18 ; of a vineyard, $2.00 ; 
of goats, $1.50 ; a landscape, $1.30 ; sheep-shearing, 
$1.40 ; a winter piece. 70 cts. ; a parrot cage, and 
" Tycken " umbrella. 

A barge with accoutrements ...... 

A small four-oared boat ....... 

A library ......... 



$225 


00 


115 


00 


250 


00 


100 


00 


150 


(X) 


80 


00 



90 00 
30 00 

15 00 

40 00 
24 00 



45 


00 


45 


00 


40 


00 


50 


GO 


15 


00 



125 00 
1,000 00 



The governor's wardrobe comprised *' cambric 
shirts ruffled," dimity vests, silk stockings, a scarlet 
cloak, a laced hat, a scarlet coat and breeches with 
gold lace, a cloth suit with open silver lace, silk 
stockings with embroidered clocks, gold-headed 
cane, " bob-tail " wig, periwig, and other articles. 

On the very spot now occupied by the Sub- 
Treasury, with its grand statue of Washington looking 



m 




222 THE STORY OF NEW YORIC. 

calmly on the hurrying crowds, stood at the period 
we are describing the second City Hall, known after 
Washington's inauguration as Federal Hall. The 
city had built it in 1700 at a cost of ^^3,000, the old 
City Hall, orStadt Huys, built by Kieft, having been 
sold for ;^920, and partly defraying the cost. Here the 
Common Council and the Provincial Assembly held 
their sessions, and the Supreme Court and the 
Mayor's and Admiralty Courts met. It was also 
the City Prison, and was trebly honored in later 
years as the place where the first Congress of the 
United States held its first session, and where its 
first President took the oath of ofifice. It was 
notable in old colony times as the rostrum where 
the royal governors published their commissions. 
It was also a central figure in the inauguration of a 
new Mayor, as is shown by the following extract 
from the journal of Mayor Thomas Noell, who took 
the oath in 1701 : 

"On Tuesday, the 14th day of October, 1701, I was 
commissioned and sworn Mayor of the City of New York 
before the Honorable John Nanfan, Esq., Lieutenant 
Governor of this Province and Council in his Majesty's, 
Fort William Henry, and from thence, according to 
the usual solemnity, I went to Trinity Church, where 
was a sermon preached by Mr. Vesey, which, ended, I 
went to the City Hall, attended by the Recorder, Alder- 
men, and assistants, and other officers, where, after the 
ringing of three bells, I published my Commission, and 
then went up into the Court-house and took the chair, 
where Isaac De Riemer, Esq., the late Mayor, delivered 
to me the charter and seals of this city." 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 223 

In the City Hall, too, visitors of distinction were 
usually received, and sometimes granted the freedom 
of the city. Thus when, in 1732, the Lord Augustus 
Fitz Roy arrived in pursuit of his bride, the mayor, 
aldermen, and assistants waited on his lordship 

" in a full body, attended by the principal officers of the 
City Regiment ; and being introduced to his Lordship 
in the Council Chamber, the Recorder addressed himself 
to him in the name of the Corporation, congratulating 
his Lordship on his safe arrival, and returning the thanks 
of the City for the Honor they received by his Lord- 
ship's presence, as also for his Lordship's condescension 
in being pleased to become a member thereof. Then the 
Worshipful, the Mayor, presented his Lordship with the 
Copy of his Freedom, to which was annexed the City 
Seal enclosed in a curious Gold Box, with the Arms of 
the City thereon neatly engraved ; which his Lordship 
was pleased to receive with the greatest Goodness and 
Complaisance, and likewise to assure the Corporation 
that he should always entertain the kindest sentiments of 
this Expression of their Regard and Esteem for him." 

This " gold box " was made by Mr. Charles Le 
Roux, the Tiffany of those days. Fortunately we 
have in the council records his bill for it as follows : 

1732. The Corporation of New York, Dr. 

Oct 20. To I oz. 12 pwt. gold to one Box 

To fashione and engraving the Box 

14 8 o 
To Mr. Charles Le Roux. 

At this early day the corporation evinced an al- 
dermanic fondness for good dinners. Every great 



£. 


s. d. 


10 


8 


4 






224 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



event and fete day, as we have seen, was celebrated 
by a grand dinner given by the corporation, to which 
the governor and principal inhabitants were invited. 
One day, mousing over some musty old records, we 
had the good fortune to find the bill of the caterer 
for one of these banquets — that given in 1704 in 
honor of Lord Cornbury's advent as Governor. We 
present it as an historical curiosity : 

1704. The Mayor, Aldermen, &c., Dr. 



Dec. 19. To a piece of beef and cabbage 
To a dish of tripe and cow-heel 
To a leg of pork and turnips 
To 2 puddings 
To a surloyn of beef . 
To a turkey and onions 
To a leg mutton and pickles 
To a dish chickens 
To minced pyes . 
To fruit, cheese, bread, &c. 
To butter for sauce 
To hire of 2 negroes to assist 
To dressing dinner, &c. 
To 31 bottles wine 
To beer and syder 



It would seem that the dinner was a part of the 
anniversary celebrations also, for in the records of the 
Common Council of Dec. 21, 171 7, we have this en- 
try: "Ordered, the Mayor issue his warrant to the 
Treasurer to pay to Mr. John Parminter or order, 
the sum of five pounds, seventeen shillings, and three 
pence, current money of New York, it being for ex- 
penses of this corporation at his house on the 20th 



£• 


J. 


d. 





7 


6 





6 








8 


3 





14 


6 





13 


6 





9 








6 








10 


6 


I 


4 








7 


6 





7 


9 





6 





I 


4 





3 


2 








12 





10 


18 


6 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 22 5 

day of October last, being the anniversary of his 
Majesty's Coronation." The bill was as follows: 

1717. Corporation of New York, Dr. 

To John Parmynter. 

To 37 bottles of wine . . . >!^3 I4 o 



October 20th, - 



To beer and cyder . . ■ • 053 

To eating i 12 o 

To dressing supper . . . . 060 



/5 17 3 



Turning eastward from the City Hall, a few steps 
down Wall Street bring us to the water-front, then, 
as now, the most interesting portion of the city. 
Make the tour of the city docks to-day, and you will 
have studied the products of the known world, 
heard the tones of every civilized tongue, learned 
the cut of every civilized jib. They were quite as 
interesting in colonial times. Throughout that 
period, the privateers, and their next of kin, the 
pirates, furnished the romance and interest. The 
privateersmen were a brave and gallant class, and 
formed an effective arm of the colonial naval service. 
Their vessels were generally small, swift, graceful 
craft, well armed and well manned, and pounced on 
the unprotected French merchantmen like falcon on 
the dove. Privateersmen were fond of giving their 
vessels high-sounding or sentimental names. There 
were the Sea Flower, the Dragon, the Castor and Pol- 
lux, the Sturdy Beggar, the Charming Peggy, the 
Bachelors, the Dolphin, the Brave Hawk, the Charm- 
ing Polly, the Rainbow, the Speedwell, the Dreadnaught, 
the Hornet, the Decoy, the Tyger, the Royal Hunter, the 



226 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

King Williavi III., the Duke of Marlborough, the 
Charming Sally, the Hope, the Wheel of Fortune, the 
Flying Harlequin, the Little Bob, the Revolution, the 
Two Frie?ids, the Triie Briton, the Tartar, the 
Charming Fanny, the Happy Return, the /rw// Gimb- 
let, the Royal American, the Lovely Martha, the 7>r- 
r/^/-?, the Nebuchadnezzar , the Fame, the Lively, the 
Impertinent, the Tory s Revenge, the Musquito, the 
Eagle, the Surprise, the Spitfire, the Experiment, the 
Golden Pippin, the Norfolk Revenge, the Game Cock, 
the Try- All, the Favorite Betsey, the Hook-Him-Snivey , 
the Who'' d-have- Thought-it, and others equally outre. 
Their number was large. A list from 1704 to 1763 
enumerates one hundred and eighty-five, with guns 
ranging from six to twenty-six each. A letter writ- 
ten at New York Jan. 5, 1757, to a merchant in Lon- 
don, says : " There are now thirty Privateers out of 
this Place, and ten more on the Stocks and launched." 
And in the London Magazine of September, 1757, 
we have a list of privateers fitted out at New York 
" since the beginning of the war" (old French and 
Indian war, 1755-63), which gives 39 vessels, 128 
guns, and 1,050 men. Their gains were often enor- 
mous. The letter from New York above quoted, 
says that up to that time (1757) the privateers had 
brought in fourteen prizes, valued in the aggregate 
at ;^ 100,000. From the beginning of the war in 
1755 to Jan. 9, 1758, fifty-nine prizes were sent into 
the port of New York by these vessels, together with 
twenty-six condemned in other ports. As we come 
out on the " New Dock " we see a long- roofed, low- 
porched tavern — that of Capt. Benjamin Kierstede — 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 227 

a favorite resort of the privateersmen of the day. 
We enter and find half a score of old sea-dogs — 

' ' Salt as the sea wind, tough and dried 
As a lean cusk from Labrador," — 

sitting around the box stove spinning yarns after 
the manner of sailor men. It will be interesting to put 
on record some of their accounts of their exploits, as 
their truth can be proven by letters and documents. 
There was the French ship La Poniine, of i8o tons 
burden, 14 carriage guns, 43 men, and a commission 
from the Due de Penhievre, Admiral of France, from 
St. Marks, Hispaniola, bound to Rochelle, France, 
taken by the privateer brig Clinton, of New York, 
about fifteen leagues north of Cape Nicola without 
the loss of a man. Her cargo invoiced 88 casks 
sugar, 237 casks indigo of 87,500 cwt., and 15 bales 
of cotton ; valued at ^^40,000. Every man of the 
Clinton received £\()0 prize-money — the result of a 
six weeks* cruise. Captain Bevan, of the Clinton^ 
seems to have done the handsome thing by his crew, 
for we read that he gave them a hogshead of punch 
and an ox roasted whole in the fields. Then there 
was the Spanish ship that the William and the Grey- 
hound took in concert, — cleared £go per man ; the 
Rising Sun, of Marseilles, taken by the Prince 
Charles, with 1,117 hogsheads of sugar, 458 casks of 
coffee, cash, and "small plunder" worth ^1,000; 
the St. Joseph taken by the brig William, with 614 
hogsheads of sugar and 200 bags and 20 casks of 
coffee ; the Le Boice taken by the brig Triton, with 
20 tuns of wine and 15 tons of flour, besides soap, 



228 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

candles, and dry goods. Captain Troup, of the brig 
Hester, was chief of the privateersmen. He was 
roving about in West India waters, in the spring 
of 1747, when he overhauled a Danish craft. We 
were then at peace with Denmark, but something 
prompted him to board the stranger, on whom he 
found a Spanish merchant bound to Cordova, with 
several strong boxes in his keeping. These he seized 
and, on opening them, found 8,000 pieces of eight. 
Captain Troup made sure of the gold, but he paid 
the Danish captain the freight agreed on by the 
merchant for carrying the specie. No wonder when 
riches were thus easily won that Governor Hamilton, 
of New Jersey, should complain that the privateers- 
men were sweeping into their ranks the flower of 
the youth of his province. Not all the prizes were 
taken so easily, however. Conflicts, often against 
fearful odds, were frequent, and hand-to-hand fights 
in which prodigies of valor were performed. We in- 
stance the case of the privateer Dragon and the brig 
GreyJwund, which, in 1746, were cruising in the Bay 
of Mexico, having with them the sloop Grand Diable, 
which they had captured a few days before. On the 
2d of May, they fell in with a Spanish frigate of 36 
guns and 300 men, 

"with whom," says the old chronicler, "they all engaged 
for the greatest part of two days ; but were at last ob- 
liged to leave her, after expending most of their ammu- 
nition. They did all that was possible for men to do 
with a superior force, and left her a perfect wreck, but 
were not in a better condition themselves, having almost 
all their masts so much wounded that they every moment 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 229 

apprehended their going overboard, and, after fishing 
them, were obliged to make the best of their way home. 
Of the enemy they saw many fall, and their col- 
ors were three times shot away, but always hoisted again 
immediately." 

Not all the voyages were prosperous. Thus we read : 
- The privateer ship Lincoln, Captahi John Jaun- 
cey of New York, was lost on the Spanish coast, 
December 1 1, 1745- She sunk while the crew were 
' putting the vessel on the careen.' " 

We will set out now for a desultory stroll about 
the city ; and first, let us visit the shopping centre, 
which we shall find in Pearl Street, and in the short 
streets leading from Broadway to the water front. 
The stores are plain and unpretentious. Many oc- 
cupy the first floors of the dwelling-houses. They 
have all sorts of wares for sale, like modern country 
stores,— dry goods, wet goods, hardware,— all under 
the same roof. At present Mr. Adolph Phillipse is 
the leading merchant in New York. He is a man of 
great wealth, with a town-house and manor at Phil- 
lipseborough, has been King's Councillor, Master m 
Chancery, Judge, and Speaker of the Assembly, and 
although a bachelor is a favorite with the ladies. Mr. 
Phillipse is an importer, and has also a wholesale and 
retail department. His store is a brick building, 
three stories high. On the first floor is the whole- 
sale department, filled at this moment with country 
merchants in broad-brimmed hats and homespun 
clothes, inspecting, weighing, tasting, and purchas- 
ing. On this floor is also kept the great chest, m 
which, in the absence of banks, are stored the money. 



230 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

wampum, pearls, silver-ware, and jewelry of the es- 
tablishment. On the floor above, dry goods, wet 
goods, and hardware, for retail, are kept. It is filled 
with fair shoppers as we enter, and the clerks are 
busy indeed, hearing and answering requests in three 
languages — English, Dutch, and French, — the three 
tongues being in common use in New York at this 
time. The shoppers are buying white Paduasoy at 
$1.87 per yard, of our money; taffety at 87 cents, 
silk tabby at 63 cents, widows' crape at 50 cents, 
brocaded lutestring at $1.12, and " hoop petticoats " 
of five rows at $1.25, of six rows at $1.56; whale- 
bone hoop petticoats are worth $3.75 ; India brocade 
is $1.00 per yard; flowered Spanish silk, 75 cents; 
scarlet stockings, 75 cents; black-silk do., $1.50; 
India dimity, 63 cents per yard ; men's velvet, $3.00 
per yard ; cherry derry, 33 cents, and so on through 
a long line of rich East India stuffs — chilloes, 
betelees, seersuckers, deribands, tapsiels, surbettees, 
sannoes, gilongs, mulmuls, cushlashes, and other 
fabrics that the shoppers of that day had at their 
tongue's end. 

" Sedan chairs " are a favorite means of locomo- 
tion. Fine ladies drive up in their carriages, with 
negro coachmen and footmen. One, just alighting 
as we pass out, is Mrs. Dr. De Lange, wife of the 
leading physician, and reputed one of the hand- 
somest and best-dressed matrons of the city. Poor 
lady ! One hundred and fifty years after she was 
dust, and when her gowns had been packed away 
in camphor and lavender as precious heirlooms, 
we came upon the inventory of her wardrobe, from 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 23 1 

which we take this tale of her jewels, which were 
contained in a " silver, thread-wrought small trunk," 
worth three pounds : 

" One pair black pendants, with gold hooks, valued at 
loi-. ; one gold boat, wherein were thirteen diamonds to 
one white coral chain, jC^\6 ; one pair gold ' stucks,' or 
pendants, in each ten diamonds, £2^ ; one gold ring, 
with a clasp back, worth \2s. j one gold ring, or 'hoop,' 
bound round with diamonds, £2 10s." 

Dr. De Lange's arms, we find, comprised a sword, 
with silver handle, valued at £2 2s. ; another, with 
an iron handle, two cutlers' edges, a carbine, a pistol, 
and two '' keanes," one with silver '' knot," or head, 
and one with ivory. 

But let us continue our walk. Down Pearl Street 
we go, flourishing our ivory-headed " keanes," after 
the manner of men about town. The first thing 
noticeable here is the great number of markets- 
long, low, open buildings, roofed with tiles. There 
is one at the foot of Broad Street, another at Coenties 
Slip, a third at the foot of Wall Street, another at 
" Burgher's Path," the present Old Slip,— the Fly 
Market ; another at the foot of Maiden Lane, an- 
other at Rodman's Slip, just above. At the foot of 
every street is a market, while on Broad Street, from 
Wall to Exchange Place, is a public stand for coun- 
try wagons, which come in heavily laden with all 
manner of produce. The markets are well-stocked 
with beef, pork, mutton, poultry, wild-fowl, venison, 
fish, roots, and herbs of all kinds in their season. 
Oysters, too, are a prominent feature; a fleet of two 



232 THE h,TOJiY OF NEW YORK. 

hundred sail is constantly employed in catching 
them on beds within view of the town. 

The " Slips," and the side streets leading off from 
Pearl, are the haunts of many quaint craftsmen. 
This shop of John Wallace, for instance, " at the Sign 
of the Cross Swords, next door to Mrs. Byfield, near 
the Fly Market," who " makes, mends, and grinds 
all sorts of knives, razors, scissors, and pen-knives." 

" Surgeons," he advertises, '' may be supplied with 
very good lancets, and other surgeons' instruments. 
Gentlemen may be furnished with all sorts of kitchen 
furniture, that belongs to a smith's trade. Barbers may 
have their razors ground for four-pence a piece. He 
puts up and mends all sorts of jacks, and makes multi- 
plying wheels for jacks. He mends locks, and makes 
keys and stillards also. He also sells all sorts of cutlery 
ware, and all at reasonable rates." 

Right here by the Fly Market, too, at the house 
of William Bradford, *' next door but one to th'e 
Treasurer's," is lodged '' Moses Slaughter, stay- 
maker," from London, who has brought with him, as 
he has been careful to inform the town : 

"A parcel of extraordinary good and fashionable 
stays of his own making, of several sizes and prices. 
Slaughter is anxious to suit those that want with extraor- 
dinary good stays. Or he is ready to wait upon any 
ladys or gentlewomen that please to send for him to 
their houses. And if any wish references, he refers to 
Mrs. Elliston, in the Broad Street, and to Mrs. Nichols, 
in the Broadway, who have had his work." 

Another quaint caftsman has his shop in Old 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 233 

Slip — Anthony Lamb, mathematical instrument 
maker, " at the Sign of the Quadrant and Surveying 
Compass." How many of the following list, one is 
tempted to ask, are now in use by the profession : 

" Quadrants, forestaffs, nocturnals, rectifiers, universal 
scales, gunters, sliding gunters, gauging rods, rulers, 
wood or brass box compasses for sea use, pocket com- 
passes, surveying compasses, surveying chains, water- 
levels, senecal quadrants, protractors, parallel rulers, 
trunk telescopes, walking-stick spy-glasses, universal or 
equinoctial ring or horizontal brass dials, steel or brass- 
jointed compasses, drawing pens, three-legged stoves, 
shipwright's draught, bows, bevels, squares, walking- 
sticks, and other small work." 

Here, at the corner house at Old Slip (John 
Cruger's), we can secure passage on Mr. Silvanus 
Seaman's Staten Island " Passage Boat," which 
leaves here each Tuesday and Friday for the island, 
and " at any other time if passage or freight pre- 
sents." Here, *' at the northwest corner of the 
Great Dock, next door to the Sign of the Leopard," 
Simon Franks, from London, has a little shop, 
** where he makes and sells all sorts of perukes, after 
the best and newest fashion, and cuts and dresses 
lady's wigs and towers after a manner performed 
much better than is pretended to be done by some 
others." 

In Robert Crommelius' little shop " near the Meal 
Market in Wall Street," one may buy all sorts of 
"■ writing paper, superfine Post Paper, ready cut by the 
half ream, blank books, sail duck. Powder-blue, copper 
tea kettles and Pye-pans, Ivory combs, sewing and 



234 '^HE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

darning needles, spectacles, all sorts of shot, small 
bar-lead, sash leads, wine glasses, wafel Irons," etc. 
At the corner of Beekman's SHp Abraham Hamper 
sells fine clocks, watches and ear-rings. Another out- 
of-the-way tradesman is Joseph Seddell, " Pewterer," 
at the sign of the Platter, at the lower end of Wall 
Street, near the Meal Market, *' in the house where 
Mr. Joseph Sackett lately lived, where he sells Pew- 
ter ware of all sorts, cannons, — six and four pounders, 
and swivel guns, cannon shot, iron pots and kettles, 
cart and wagon boxes, backs for chimnies, Fuller 
plates, pig and bar iron, etc. He will pay you hard 
money for old bars and pewter." Most gruesome 
and picturesque of all is the undertaker. In 1 740, 
people were not so finical, and little attempt was 
made by the tradesman to relieve the ghastliness of 
death. Coffins, some quite magnificent in silver and 
lace trimmings stood on end around his wareroom. 
On a bier in the rear were the Parish Palls, two of 
them, one of black velvet designed for general use, 
the other of cloth, with an edging of white silk a 
foot broad, which could only be used for unmarried 
men and maidens. Flannel shrouds with gloves, 
scarfs, hat bands, and other mourning paraphernalia 
filled shelves ranged around the sides of the room. 
On the counter, painted a funeral black, was a tray 
of lacquer-work, holding the shopman's cards, and 
samples of the *' invitations to funerals " it was then 
customary to send to relatives of the deceased. By 
these cards the public was informed that the under- 
taker " hath a velvet pall, a good hears, mourning 
cloaks, and black hangings for rooms to be let at 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 235 

reasonable rates. He hath also for sale all sorts of 
mourning and half mourning, white silk for scarfs 
and hat bands at funerals, with coffins, shrouds and 
all sorts of burying cloaths for the dead." 

In this connection we will speak of a beautiful 
custom practised by young maidens of visiting 
the graves of their deceased companions on each an- 
niversary of death, and strewing them with the flow- 
ers of remembrance. Trinity being the English 
churchyard was the one generally sought. It was 
much more impressive in that day than now, 
with its groves of forest giants and numerous sombre 
yews, *' the cheerless, unsocial plant " of the poet. 

To this solemn abode of the dead the maidens 
came, clad in white, and bearing baskets of flowers, 
and as they performed their pious office they sang 
pathetic little songs, one of which we reproduce : 

" Come with heavy mourning, 
And on her grave 
Let her have 

Sacrifice of sighs and mourning. 
Let her have fair flowers enough, 
White and purple, green and yellow, 
For her that was of maids most true, 
For her that was of maids most true." 

The street signs please us by their number and 
variety. Very few of the commonalty can read, and 
so in place of letters the tradesmen have a distinguish- 
ing sign. Three sugar loaves and a tea-canister indi- 
cate the shop of a grocer near Coenties Market. 
Patrick Carryl sells ** good raisins of the sun," cheap 
at the sign of the Unicorn and Mortar in Hanover 



236 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Square. The chair-maker on Golden Hill has the 
sign of the Chair Wheel, a vender of clocks the sign 
of the Dial. The Exchange Coffee house and Tav- 
ern the sign of the " King' s Arms!' Another tavern 
sign is the Scotch Arms. Thomas Lepper's Ordinary, 
opposite the Merchants' Coffee-house, has the sign 
of the Duke of Cuinberland. He advertises that 
dinner will be ready at half an hour after one. The 
Boston Post puts up at Mr. Jonathan Ogden's, the 
sign of the Black Horse, in upper Queen (Pearl) 
Street. George Burns keeps one of the most popu- 
lar taverns of the city at the sign of the Cart and 
Horse, and constantly takes in the " Boston, Phila- 
delphia, and New York newspapers." There is a 
newly-opened tavern at the sign of the Bunch of 
Grapes, near the Widow Rutger's beer-house, going 
up towards the Cart and Horse. " John Reed, Tay- 
lor," is to be found at the sign of the Blue Ball in 
Wall Street. The stables of George Goodwin are at 
the sign of the Dolphin, facing the Common. Look- 
ing glasses are new-silvered, and pictures made and 
sold at the sign of the Two Cupids, near the Old 
Slip Market, and so on. " Jamaica Pilot Boat," 
" Rose and Crown," " The Bible," '' Fighting Cocks," 
" Cross Swords," '' Platter," " Quadrant and Com- 
pass," " Spread Eagle," '' White Swan," " The Sun," 
" The Leopard," " Horse and Manger," are favorite 
signs. 

The coffee-houses on the London plan are favor- 
ite resorts for all classes. As one wrote of them 
about this time : *' You have all manner of news 
there. You have a good fire, which you may sit by 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 237 

as long as you please. You have a dish of coffee. 
You meet your friends for the transaction of busi- 
ness, and all for a penny if you don't care to spend 
mork" We will enter the Exchange Coffee-house, 
the principal one in the city. Bare sanded floor, plain 
pine tables and seats, a roaring f^re, a perpetual 
supply of hot water, and the coffee- and tea-pots 
set close by to keep warm, comprise the furniture. 
Quite a number of gentlemen are present ; some 
drinking at the bar, some exchanging the news, some 
reading the weekly newspapers. One of the latter 
looks up with a smile as we enter, and then reads 
aloud to his companion : 

"We hear from Ridgefield, near the county of West- 
chester, that one William Drinkwater, late an inhabitant 
there, proving quarrelsome with his neighbors and abus- 
ive to his wife, the good women of the place took the 
matter into consideration, and laid hold of an opportunity 
to get him tied to a cart, and there with rods belabored 
him on his back, till, in striving to get away, he pulled one 
of his arms out of joint, and then they untied him. Mr. 
Drinkwater complained to sundry magistrates of this usage 
but all he got by it was to be laughed at, whereupon he 
removed to New Milford, where, we hear, he proves a good 
neighbor and a loving husband ; a remarkable reformation 
arising from the justice of the good women." 

- Served him right," his friend remarks, and then 
reads an item that has interested him : 

" Last Thursday morning a creature of an uncommon 
size and shape was observed to break through a window 
of a store-house of this city, and jump into the street, 
where was suddenly a number of spectators, who fol- 



238 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

lowed it till it jumped over several high fences, and at 
last stuck between two houses, where they shot it. Many 
had the curiosity to view it, and say it was 7 feet 
long. Most of them say it is a panther, but whence it 
came or how it got into the store-house, we are at a loss 
to know." 

The taverns, we notice, are quite numerous and of 
various grades. Let us stop at the " Black Horse/' 
where the Boston Post, which runs weekly in sum- 
mer and fortnightly in winter, "puts up." It is a 
traveller's inn, the favorite of the commonalty, while 
the " King's Arms " is patronized by the patrician 
class. As we push open the two-leaved door and en- 
ter, a strange and picturesque scene greets us. A 
huge fire of logs burns in the red-tiled fireplace, the 
white, sanded floor is stained with splotches of to- 
bacco juice and discarded quids, while an odor of 
vile tobacco fills the air. Quite a number of the 
frequenters of the place are present — the smith in 
his leathern apron, the butcher in his long frock, lab- 
orers in soil-stained smocks and homespun breeches, 
a jockey in cap and feather, farmers In camlet coats 
and sheepskin breeches — all leisurely draining from 
long pewter mugs their mid-day dram of Sopus ale. 
One of '' His Majesty's players " is singing a " catch " 
as we enter, and we stop to listen : 

" Under the trees in sunny weather, 
Just try a cup of ale together. 
And if in tempest or in storm 
A couple then to make you warm, 
But when the day is very cold 
Then taste a mug of twelve months' old " — 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



239 



which sentiment is heartily applauded. There are a 
number of placards on the walls — a schedule of ferry 
charges and regulations, notices of auction sales, 
fairs, horse races, and among them a paper that in- 
terests us very much. It is entitled "The Several 
Stages from the City of New York to Boston, and 
where Travellers may be Accommodated." 

" From New York to Boston," we read, '' is accounted 
274 miles. From the Post Office in New York to Joe 
Clapp's in the Bouwerie is 2 miles (which generally is the 
bating place, where gentlemen take leave of their friends 
going so long a journey), and where a parting glass of 
generous wine," 

" ' If well applied, makes their dull horses feel 
One spur in the head 's worth two in the heel. ' 



From Clapp's to the Half-Way House is 
Thence to King's Bridge is 

Old Shute's, East Chester 

" New Rochelle Meeting House 

" Joseph Horton's 

" Denham's at Rye 

Knap's at Horse Neck 

" Dan. Weed's, at Stamford 

" Belden's, Norwalk . 

*' Burr's, Fairfield 

" Knowles', Stratford . 

" Andrew Sanford's, Milford 

" Widow Frisbie's, Branford 

" John Hobson's, Guilford . 
John Grinell's, Killingworth 

" John Clark's, Seabrook 

" Mr. Plum's, New London 

" Mr. Saxton's 

" Mr. Pemberton's, Narragansett Country 



7 

9 
6 

4 
4 
4 
7 
7 

10 

10 

8 

4 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
15 
15 



240 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



Thence to Frenchtown 
" Mr. Turpin's 

" Mr. Woodcock's 
" Billing's Farm . 
White's . 
Fishe's 



MILES 
24 
20 

15 
II 

6 
6 



and thence to the great town of Boston ten miles, where 
many good lodgings and accommodations may be had 
for love and money." 

By and by a shouting and hubbub without draws 
every one to the door, and the fire engines and fire- 
men dash by. There is a fire in Henry Riker's 
blacksmith shop in the crowded part of the city. 
At the fire the engines attract our attention. They 
are known as the Newnham engine, after the in- 
ventor, and were patented in England early in the 
century. Each required twelve men to work it ; it 
took water from a cistern, or failing that from a 
wooden trough into which water was poured, and it 
could throw a continuous jet of water seventy feet 
high, and with such velocity as to break windows. 
In 1736 the corporation built a house for its engines 
contiguous to the Watch House in Broad Street, 
having appointed the year before one " Jacobus 
Turk, gunsmith," to keep them clean and in good 
repair upon his own cost for the sum of ten pounds 
per annum. It was not until September 19, 1738, 
that the first twenty-four firemen were appointed 
under Act of Assembly, their only salary or emolu- 
ment being exemption from serving as constable, 
surveyor of highways, jurors on inquests, or as 
militia. The different trades and races seem to have 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 24 1 

been well represented, for we read of John Tiebout, 
blockmaker, Hercules Windover, blacksmith, Ja- 
cobus Delamontaigne, blockmaker, Thomas Brown, 
cutler, Abraham Van Gelder, gunsmith, Jacobus 
Stoutenburgh, gunsmith, Wm. Roome, Jr., car- 
penter, Walter Hyer, Sr., bricklayer, Johannes 
Alstein, blacksmith, Everet Pells, Jr., ropemaker, 
Peter Lott, carman, Peter Brower, bricklayer, Al- 
bertus Tiebout, carpenter, John Vredenburg, car- 
penter, John Dunscomb, cooper, Johannes Roome, 
carpenter, Peter Maeschalck, baker, Petrus Kip, 
baker, Andrew Myer, Jr., cordwainer, Robert 
Richardson, cooper, Rymer Broger, blacksmith, 
Barnet Bush, cooper, David Van Gelder, black- 
smith, Johannes Van Duersen, cordwainer, Martin- 
us Bogert, carman, Johannes Vredenbergh, cord, 
wainer, Johannes Van Sys, carpenter, Adolph Brase, 
cordwainer, and John Man, cooper, '* all strong, able, 
discreet, holiest, and sober ineny 

The same act defined the firemen's duties. On 
the first alarm they were to drag the engines to the 
fire and there under direction of the magistrates, 
engineer, or overseer, ''with their utmost diligence, 
manage, work, and play the said fire engines and all 
other tools and instruments, at such fire with all their 
power, skill, strength, and understanding, and when 
the fire is out shall draw the engine back." The city 
firemen were chartered in 1798 as the Volunteer Fire 
Department, and continued as such until 1865, when 
the present efficient system of a paid force took its 
place. In the early days of the volunteer force great 
care was taken in the selection of the men. They 



242 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

passed an examination before being accepted, and 
were given a certificate of membership, which was 
framed and handed down as a precious heirloom. 

We have so far omitted to notice a very numerous 
class — the servants or slaves. We meet them every- 
where — on the streets, bringing water, selling pies, 
giving the babies an airing, doing the family market- 
ing ; indeed they perform most of the menial work 
in the houses, stores, and fields. There are three 
classes of them — negroes held as slaves, Indians, 
and European immigrants. Most of the negroes are 
native Africans, imported direct from Angola and 
Madagascar in the colony vessels — a savage, brutal, 
and heathen race. We have not been able to deter- 
mine the status of the Indian slaves ; probably they 
were prisoners of war, or criminals condemned to 
servitude. The European servants were those ** in- 
dentured " or bound out until such time as their wages 
should discharge their passage money. These three 
classes are proved to have existed from certain items 
in the newspapers of the day, as when we read in 
1732: "Just arrived from great Britain and to be 
sold on board the ship Alice and Elizabeth, Captain 
Paine, Commander, several likely Welch and English 
servant men, most of them tradesmen." Again in 
175 I : " Likely Negroes, men and women, imported 
from the coast of Africa, ... to be sold by Thomas 
Greenell " ; and in 1759 : " On board the ship Charm- 
ing Polly, Captain Edward Bayley, Master, now rid- 
ing at anchor in the harbor of New York, are several 
Palatine and Switzer servants to be sold ; some are 







G^ ^ .■^^^cc<?^-c^^i/?2£' y^(:>-.=^^ ^loTncn^a^^ a^td'' aJ)^/iaiyr/7e^ 



■^ii^f^^<nz,c^?z/ {Tir/^ 






firemen's certificate of membership about the year 1800. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 243 

farmers and some tradesmen." Again, in 1747 : 
" Run away on April the 25th, from Capt. Abraham 
Kip, in New York, an Indian man about eighteen 
years old, and speaks good English." Twenty shil- 
lings' reward was offered for his return. The servants, 
whether white or black, had a great propensity for 
running away, and it was rarely they went empty- 
handed. The Indian tribes and the colonies of Con- 
necticut and New Jersey on either hand offered safe 
refuge. Colonial newspapers did a thriving business 
in publishing advertisements of runaway slaves, and 
from their descriptions of the truants may be gained 
vivid pictures of colonial costumes and customs. 
Here are a few speciments : 

" Run away from Richard Bishop, a servant man named 
John Farrant about nineteen years of age, of a fresh 
complexion, about five feet and a half high ; he had on 
when he went away a brown livery coat and breeches : 
the coat lined and cuffed with blue ; a blue shoulder 
knot, a black natural wig, and a pair of red stockings." 

" Run away from Joseph Reade, of the city of New^ 
York, merchant, a likely mulatto servant woman named 
Sarah. She is about 24 years of age, and has taken with 
her a calico suit of clothes, a striped satteen silk waist- 
coat, a striped Calliminco waistcoat and petty-coat, two 
homespun waistcoats and petty-coats, and a negro man's 
light colored coat with brass buttons." 

William Bradford advertises his " apprentice boy," 
James Parker, who had *' a fresh complexion and 
short yellowish hair," and wore a yellowish Bengali 
coat, jacket, and breeches lined with the same, and 



244 ^^^ STORY GF NEW YORK. 

had taken with him *■ a brown colored coarse coat 
with flat metal buttons, two frocks, two shirts, one 
pair of striped ticken jackets and breeches." 

The number of these slaves owned in a family was 
considered an index of its wealth and social position. 
Thus, of the aristocracy of New York, in 1704, Col- 
onel De Peyster owned five male slaves, two females, 
and two children. Widow Van Cortlandt had the 
same. Rip Van Dam had three negroes, two ne- 
gresses, and a child. The Widow Phillipse, w^ith but 
herself and child to be cared for, owned one man, 
three women, and three children. Balthazar Bayard 
had six slave domestics : Mrs Stuyvesant, four male 
negroes and a negress. Captain Morris, with only 
himself and w4fe, maintained seven slaves. William 
Smith, of the manor of St. George, employed twelve. 

The great body of servants, as has been said, were 
Africans. They were rude, savage, lazy, and ineffi- 
cient, and a constant source of fear and uneasiness to 
their masters. Indeed, between the French and In- 
dians, Popish plots, and uprisings of his slaves, the 
colonial gentleman deemed himself in constant dan- 
ger of assault. In 1741, out of a population of twelve 
thousand, two thousand were negro slaves. The lat- 
ter had become very much disaffected at this time, 
partly, no doubt, because they were subject to such 
strict regulations. Not above four were allowed 
to meet together on the Sabbath, which was their 
holiday. No negro or Indian slave could appear in 
the streets after nightfall without a " lantern and a 
lighted candle in it," under penalty of forty lashes at 
the whipping-post. Gaming was visited by the same 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 245 

penalty. A slave must be buried by daylight ; no 
pall or pall-bearers were allowed at the funeral, 
and not more than twelve slaves were permitted to 
attend. 

These restrictions, added to the hardships of their 
lot, led to several uprisings among them, one of 
which, that of 1741, we will consider somewhat at 
length, since it will introduce to us an interesting 
colonial court scene. 

In February, 1 740-1, numerous robberies were 
committed in the city, and several negro slaves, with 
one John Hughson, at whose tavern they were wont 
to congregate, were suspected of being concerned in 
it. Some of the suspected slaves were arrested and 
tried for the offence. This was on March 4th. On 
the i8th, the wind blowing a gale, the roof of the 
governor's house in Fort George was discovered to 
be on fire. At once the church bells rang, and the 
people, with the fire engines and the twenty-four fire- 
men, hurried to the fort. It was soon seen, how- 
ever, that no earthly power could save the gover- 
nor's house and the chapel beside it, and the people 
turned their attention to the secretary's office over 
the fort gate, in which the records of the colony were 
kept. The office was consumed, however, in spite of 
their efforts. The barracks opposite caught next, 
and in an hour and a quarter every thing combustible 
within the fort was in ruins. The heavy timbers of 
the chapel belfry burned all night long, lighting town 
and bay with a fitful glare, while the hand grenades 
stored in the fort kept up a continual fusillade, as the 
flames reached them. The excitement in the city 



246 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

was intense. The wildest rumors were current. Some 
thought that a Popish plot to burn the city was on 
foot, others that it was a negro uprising. To quiet 
the people, Captain Cornelius Van Home's militia 
company, seventy strong, was called out, and patrolled 
the streets until day broke. Wednesday, March 
25th, another fire broke out at Captain Warren's, 
near the Long Bridge, in the extreme southern part 
of the town, but the fire engines put it out. A week 
later, fire was discovered in the store-house of the 
merchant Van Zandt, in the eastern end of the city, 
but the engines confined the fire to the building. 

April 4th, at night, a fire broke out in a cow stable 
near the Fly Market, in the most thickly settled por- 
tion of the town. Everybody ran with their buckets, 
the fire engines rattled down, and the flames were 
quenched. On their way home the people were 
startled by another cry of fire, which proved to be 
in the loft of the house of Benjamin Thomas on the 
west side. When extinguished, it was found that 
an incendiary had been at work, for coals had been 
placed between two straw beds, on which a negro 
slept. The next day, Sunday, another attempt 
was discovered — coals had been placed under a hay 
stack near the coach house and stables of John Mur- 
ray, Esq., in the Broadway, near his house, and these 
coals, by cinders spilled in carrying them, were traced 
to the house of a negro near by. The same day a 
Mrs. Earle, remaining home from church, heard three 
negroes, walking by her house, threaten to burn the 
town, and recognized one of them " as Mr. Walter's 
Quaco." All doubt that a plot to burn the city ex- 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 247 

isted was banished when, next morning at ten, a fire 
broke out in the house of Sergeant Burns, and an- 
other, about the same time, in a cluster of buildings 
near the Fly Market. There were some Spanish 
negroes, recently captured, in the city, who had been 
muttering and threatening the whites ever since 
their arrival, and these were now seized and haled 
before the magistrates, who, after examination, com- 
mitted them to prison. 

Other fires occurred, and many negroes, with sev- 
eral white people were arrested. On April 21, 1741, 
the Supreme Court of Judicature of the colony came 
in and sat in the City Hall, " His Honor James 
De Lancey, Esq., Chief Justice, absent, Frederick 
Phillipse, Esq., Second Justice, and Daniel Hors- 
manden, Esq., Third Justice, present." The pris- 
oners having been duly indicted by the Grand Jury, 
were brought before the court. A description of the 
trial, taken from an account by one of the judges, 
Mr. Daniel Horsmanden, we present, as giving the 
reader an excellent idea of the stately and solemn 
ceremonial of the colonial courts. 

The judges sat on the bench in heavy black robes 
and full-bottomed wigs. The prisoners being mar- 
shalled before it, the court rose and Judge Phillipse 
said: ''The King against the same on trial upon 
three indictments." They then sat down and the 
clerk said : '' Cryer, make proclamation." 

Cryer—' Oy^iX Our Sovereign Lord the King doth 
strictly charge and command all manner of persons to 
keep silence upon pain of imprisonment. If any one can 
inform the King's Justices or Attorney-General for this 



248 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

province on the inquest now to be taken on the behalf of 
our Sovereign Lord the King, of any treason, murder, 
felony, or any other misdemeanor committed or done by 
the prisoners at the bar, let them come forth, and they 
shall be heard, for the prisoners stand upon their deliv- 
erance." 

Clerk — "Cryer, make proclamation." 

Cryer — " Oyez ! You good men that are impanelled to 
inquire between our Sovereign Lord the King and John 
Hughson, Sarah his wife, Sarah Hughson the daughter, 
Margaret Sorubiero, alias Kerry, the prisoners at the bar, 
answer to your names." 

Clerk — '• John Hughson, Sarah the wife of John Hugh- 
son, Sarah the daughter of John Hughson, Margaret 
Sorubiero, hold up your hands : 

" These good men that are now called, and here ap- 
pear, are those which are to pass between you and our 
Sovereign Lord the King upon your lives or deaths ; if 
you, or any, or either of you challenge any of them, you 
must speak as they come to the book to be sworn and 
before they are sworn." 

Judge Phillipse — " You, the prisoners at the bar, we 
must inform you that the law allows you the liberty of 
challenging peremptorily twenty of the jurors, if you have 
any dislike to them, and you need not give your reasons 
for so doing ; and you may likewise challenge as many 
more as you can give sufficient reasons for ; and you may 
either all join in your challenges or make them separately." 

John Hughson, for the prisoners and himself, 
challenged sixteen. The twelve selected were then 
sworn. 

Clerk — "Cryer, make proclamation" ; after which 
the clerk, turning to the jury, continued : 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 24Q 

"You gentlemen of the jury, that are sworn, look 
upon the prisoners and hearken to this charge." 

Three indictments were then read, and the clerk, 
turning to the jury, said : " Upon this indictment 
they have been arraigned, and hath pleaded them- 
selves ' not guilty,' and for their trial hath put them- 
selves upon God and their country, which country 
you are." 

The Attorney-General then opened for the king, 
and the trial proceeded. It is not necessary to follow 
it in detail. After hearing the testimony and the 
pleadings, the jury returned a verdict of ''guilty," 
and Judge Phillipse, after a solemn and impressive 
address, sentenced them as follows : 

. . . " I must now proceed to the duty the law re- 
quires of me, which is to tell you that you, the prisoners 
now at the bar, be removed to the place from whence 
you came, and from thence to the place of execution, and 
there you, and each of you, are to be hanged by the neck 
until you are severally dead ; and I pray God of his great 
goodness to have mercy on your souls." 

Sarah, the daughter, was finally respited and par- 
doned. Many others were tried and punished. In all 
eleven negroes were burned, eighteen hanged, fifty 
transported, and many more imprisoned. Several 
white persons were also executed. Business for four 
months was prostrated. It was a fearful and 
dramatic chapter in the city's history, and, by general 
verdict of historians, a quite unnecessary one — that 
is, it is not now believed that any serious plot to 
burn the town really existed. 



250 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

These men, whose pubHc acts we have been con- 
sidering and who have perhaps impressed us with 
being cold, stern, stately, unapproachable beings, 
had also their social and domestic life — loved, sor- 
rowed, hated, went the round of fashionable follies 
and amusements, dressed well, danced well, enter- 
tained well, in some respects 

" Lived in a nobler way 
With grander hospitality," 

than do the men of to-day. The hurry and fever of 
our modern life was unknown to them. England 
was two months distant. It took five days' steady 
travelling to reach Boston, and nearly three to go to 
Philadelphia. The newspapers came out once a 
week. There was greater opportunity for social in- 
tercourse and interchange of courtly ceremonial. 
The governor and his lady, the officers of the garri- 
son and of his Majesty's frigates, with visiting 
noblemen and the resident gentry, formed a minor 
court circle, that adopted, in a measure, the fashions 
and amusements of that at home. 

Theatre-going, card-playing, horse-racing, dancing, 
horseback-riding, sails in Captain Rickett's " pleasure 
boat " were the popular amusements. There was a 
play-house in the city as early as October, 1733, ref- 
erence being made to it in an advertisement in the 
Neiv York Gazette of that date. Perhaps it was to 
this play house that the following play-bill, cut from 
the Weekly Post Boy, of March 12, 1750, referred: 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 251 

BY HIS EXCELLENCY'S PERMISSION. 

AT THE THEATRE IN NASSAU STREET, 

This Evening will be presented 

THE HISTORICAL TRAGEDY OF RICHARD HI. 

Wrote originally by Shakespeare and altered by CoLLY Cibber, Esq. 

To which will be added a farce called 

THE BEAU IN THE SUDDS 

AND 

On Saturday next will he presented 

A TRAGY-COMEDY CALLED 

THE SPANISH FRYAR, 

OR 

THE DOUBLE DISCOVERY, 

Wrote by Mr. Dryden. 
Tickets to be had of the printer hereof. 
Pitt, 5s. Gallery, 3s, To begin, precisely at half an hour after 
6 o'clock, and no person to be admitted behind the scenes." 

On September loth, a comedy called " The Re- 
cruiting Officer" is announced for the same place, 
and on the 17th the "tragedy called Cato, wrote by 
Mr. Addison." Quite a long list of '' tragedys, 
comedies, ballad operas, and pastoral dialogues," 
enacted in the old play-house, might be made from 
these play bills. There were many other entertain- 
ments open to the pleasure- seeker, however. Thus, 
in the Weekly Post Boy, of December 25, 1749, John 
Bonnin informs the curious of either sex that he 
begins that day to exhibit his " Philosophical Optical 
Machine," " which had given so much satisfaction to 
all those that had already favored him with their 
company. He has sundry new additions which he 
proposes to show all the winter season : to begin at 



252 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

8 o'clock in the morning and continue showing till 
nine at night, at the house of Mr. Victor Becket, 
opposite Mr. Hayne's new buildings in Crown Street. 
Price, I shilling for grown persons and a sixpence for 
children." Next is Punch's company of comedians, — 
which never palls, — with the inevitable '' wax figgers." 
There are fourteen of the latter, comprising the 
efifigies of the royal family of England and the 
Empress, Queen of Hungaria and Bohemia. " The 
company will act this week the play of Whittington 
and his Cat, and next week the Norfolk Tragedy, or 
the Babes in the Wood. Price, 2 shillings for each 
ticket." 

In " Mr. Holt's Long Room," again, we have the 
" New Pantomime Entertainment in Grotesque Char- 
acters, called the Adventures of Harlequin and 
Scaramouch, or the Spaniard Tricked " ; to which is 
added an ''Optic," wherein is " represented in Perspec- 
tive several of the most noted cities and remarkable 
places in Europe and America, and a new Prologue 
and Epilogue addressed to the town. Tickets, five 
shillings each." There is also a concert of " vocal 
and instrumental musick at the house of Robert 
Tod, to begin precisely at five o'clock. Tickets at 
5s." The wonder of its day, however, and the great- 
est attraction, was the new electrical machine, which 
was thus announced in the Weekly Post Boy, of May 
i6, 1748 : 

" FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE CURIOUS. 
TO BE SHOWN : 

The most surprising effects or Phenomena on Electricity 
of attracting, repelling, and Flenemies Force, particu- 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 253 

larly the new way of electrifying several persons at the 
same time, so that Fire shall dart from all Parts of their 
Bodies, as has been exhibited to the satisfaction of the 
Curious in all parts of Europe. Electricity became all 
the subject in vogue. Princes were willing to see this 
new fire, which a man produced from himself, and is tho't 
to be of service in many ailments. To be seen at any 
time of the day, from 8 o'clock in the morning till 9 at 
night, provided the weather proves dry, and no damp air, 
(a company presenting,) at the House of Mrs. Wilson, 
near the Weigh House, in New York, where due attend- 
ance is given by Mr. Richard Brichell." 

The Englishman could not be long in America 
without importing his own race-horse and hunter. 
Announcements like the following are often met 
with: "On Wednesday, the 13th of October next, 
will be run for on the course at New York, a plate of 
twenty pounds' value, by any Horse, Mare, or Geld- 
ing carrying ten stone (saddle and bridle included) 
the best of three heats, two miles each heat." The 
entrance fee was half a pistole each, and the great 
crowds that ''came on horseback and in chaises" 
were obliged to pay sixpence each as gate money 
to the owner of the grounds. 

There were famous courses too at Greenwich, and 
on Hempstead Plains, as well as at New York. Thus 
the Weekly Post Boy of June 4, 1750 : 

" Last Friday a great horse race was run on Hemp- 
stead Plains for a considerable wager, which engaged 
the attention of so many of this city that upwards of 
seventy chairs and chaises were carried over the ferry 
from hence the day before, besides a far greater number 



254 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

of horses ; and it was thought that the number of 
horses on the Plains at the race far exceeded a thou- 
sand." 

Often individual races and trials of speed were ar- 
ranged on a wager. Thus we read, under date of 
April 29, 1759, that " Oliver Delancey's horse ran 
from one of our Palisade gates (Wall Street and 
Broadway) to King's Bridge and back again, being 
upwards of thirty miles, in one hour 47I- minutes." 
Horseback riding through the embowered lanes and 
by-paths of the island was a favorite amusement. 
The lady and her escort did not then ride coldly 
apart, however, but shared the same steed, the fair 
rider being mounted on a pillion behind, and main- 
taining her position by passing an arm about her 
companion's waist ; both saddle and pillion were 
elegantly made and lavishly ornamented. What is 
now ^'Second Avenue was then, according to a 
naughty chronicler, the favorite drive, the reason 
being that at the corner of the present Fiftieth 
Street, a quaint stone bridge, famed as the " Kissing 
Bridge," spanned a little, clear-water brook that 
went babbling down to the East River. On cross- 
ing this bridge the favored swain was privileged to 
claim a kiss from his companion— a curious survival 
of an old Danish custom. If the lady was disposed 
to be ungracious, however, there were parallel roads 
she might choose. 

Dancing in colony times grew to be one of the 
fine arts. No merry-making was thought to be 
complete without one of the stately dances of the 
day. We have seen how all the king's birthdays and 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 255 

fete days generally concluded with a grand ball in 
the evening. Sometimes people danced for sweet 
charity's sake, as they now do. For instance, in the 
Weekly Post Boy of December 11, 1752, we read : 

" A ball on Thursday evening is proposed to be held 
at the house of Mr. Trotter, in the Broadway, for the 
benefit of Jacob Leonard, who, by reason of the late 
sickness in this place, is reduced to low circumstances. 
Tickets to be had at Mr. Trotter's, or at the said 
Leonard's, opposite the Presbyterian Church. Price, 
four shillings." 

The dances were mostly those introduced from 
England, and were, without exception, of a lively 
character, involving swift motions of the limbs and 
flying movements of the feet. The modern round 
dance was unknown. The " country dance " (con- 
tra dance ?) was the favorite. 

These were the duties and diversions of the gen- 
tlefolk. The commonalty, too, had their favorite 
modes of recreation. Athletic sports figured largely 
in these — foot-racing, jumping, quoit-pitching, climb- 
ing the greased pole, " pulling the goose," and oth- 
ers. " Shooting-matches " would seem to have been 
the favorite, judging from the great number of an- 
nouncements like the following : 

'' To be shot for : a lot of land belonging to Robert 
Bennett, in Sacketts Street. It is to be shot for on Eas- 
ter Munday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the 
7th, 8th, 9th, and loth of April next, with a single ball at 
100 yards distance, at the sign of the Marlboroug's Head, 
in the Bowery Lane. Every person that inclines to shoot 



256 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

for the above-mentioned lot of land is to lay in 5 s. before 
he fires, his price for every shot, and whoever makes the 
best shot in the four days mentioned shall receive a good 
and warrantable bill of sale of the afore-mentioned lot of 
land from Robert Bennett." 

Lotteries were popular with all classes, and were 
generally organized in aid of some charity, church, 
or benevolent work. Snuff-taking seems to have 
been the prevalent vice among ladies, and formed a 
favorite subject for the lampooners of the day. This 
example, from a newspaper of 1 73 1 , shows how forced 
and heavy was colonial wit : 

" This silly trick of taking snuff is attended with such a 
cocquet air in some young (as well as older) gentlewomen, 
and such a sedate masculine one in others, that I cannot 
tell which most to complain of ; but they are to me 
equally disagreeable. Mrs. Saunter is so impatient of 
being without it, that she takes it as often as she does 
salt at meals ; and as she affects a wonderful ease and 
negligence in all her manners, an upper lip, mixed with 
snuff and the sauce, is what is presented to the observa- 
tion of all who have the honor to eat with her. The 
pretty creature, her niece, does all she can to be as disa- 
greeable as her aunt, and if she is not as offensive to the 
eye, she is quite as much to the ear, and makes up all 
she wants in a confident air by a nauseous rattle of the 
nose when the snuff is delivered, and the fingers make 
the stops and closes on the nostrils. This, perhaps, is 
not a very courtly usage in speaking of gentlewomen ; 
that is very true, but where arises the offence ? Is it in 
those who commit, or those who observe it ? As to 
those who take it for pretty action, or to fill up little in- 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 257 

tervals of discourse, I can bear with them ; but then 
they must not use it when another is speaking, who 
ought to be heard with too much respect to admit of 
offering at that time from hand to hand the snuff-box. 
But Florilla is so far taken with her behavior in this 
kind, that she pulls out her box (which is indeed full of 
good Brazile) in the middle of the sermon, and to show 
that she has the audacity of the well bred woman, she 
offers it to the men as well as to the women who sit next 
her. But since by this time all the world knows she has 
a fine hand, I am in hopes she may give herself no fur- 
ther trouble in this matter. On Sunday was sevennight, 
when they came about for the offering, she gave her 
charity with a very good air, but at the same time asked 
the church-warden if he would take a pinch," 

But these merry-makings, and the brilliant society 
that gave them birth, had their day and passed, — a 
sterner age succeeding. In 1760 " the times that 
tried men's souls" were approaching, and it is quite 
time that, with lofty purpose and pulses stirred, we 
turned to consider them, — for New York played no 
insignificant role in the great drama. 




XIII. 

THE HEROIC AGE. 

The year 1765 is a red-letter year in American 
history. In March of that year the Stamp Act was 
passed, and the Stamp Act was the Httle entering 
wedge that first opened the rupture between the 
colonies and the mother country — a rupture which 
widened and widened until a great gulf, and at last 
free national existence for the daughter, was the 
result. This Stamp Act in itself was not an oppres- 
sive measure. It provided simply that all deeds, 
receipts, and other legal papers, even to marriage 
licenses, should be written or printed on stamped 
paper, this paper to be sold by the revenue collectors, 
and to form part of the revenue collected from the 
colonies. The difficulty was that a principle, a right, 
was involved. If there was one thing that the Briton 
of that day gloried in, jealously guarded, it was the 
English Constitution. The people had gotten this 
grand instrument by piecemeal, as it were, through 
a thousand years of struggle. First, as students of 
English history know, came Magna Carta, the Great 
Charter, which the barons forced from King John 
in 121 5. Next, the Petition of Rights, in 1628, one 
of the conditions of which was that the king should 

258 



THE HEROIC AGE. 



259 



have no power to make " forced loans," that is, levy- 
taxes without the people's consent. Third, the Ha- 
beas Corpus Act, in 1679, " for the better securing 
the liberty of the subject and the prevention of im- 
portations beyond the seas." Fourth, the Bill of 
Rights, of 1689, agreed to when William and Mary 
came to the throne. And, lastly, the " Act of Settle- 
ment," of 1700, which still further limited the pre- 
rogatives of the crown. There were, of course, other 
grants and concessions, but these are generally 
regarded a*^' the five ' great pillars of the English 
Constitution. The way in which British yoemen 
regarded this grand instrument has been described 
by M. Taine, in words imbued with the very spirit 
of the times : 

" Every one, great or small, has his own, which he 
defends with all his might. My lands, my property, 
my chartered right, whatsoever it be — ancient, indirect, 
superfluous, individual, public, — none shall touch it, 
King, Lords, nor Commons. Is it of the value of five 
shillings ? I will defend it like a million pounds ; it is 
my person which they would fetter. I will leave my 
business, lose my time, throw away my money, make 
associations, pay fines, go to jail, perish in the attempt. 
No matter. I shall show that I am no coward ; that I 
will not bend under injustice, that I will not yield a por- 
tion of my right." 

This was exactly the pos-ition taken by the Amer- 
ican colonists when King George and his ministers 
sought to lay a '' forced loan " on them by means of 
the Stamp Act. They said the tax was illegal, un- 
constitutional, because levied without their consent ; 



26o THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

that if the ministr}" had power to lay this tax. they 
could go on and le\y others, and others, until their 
property was all swept away. They were willing, 
they said, to pay their just share of the taxes of the 
realm : but then they must be allowed to send men 
to Parliament to defend their rights and look after 
their interests. A statesman would have foreseen 
that America must now be made an integral part of 
the empire, or she would aspire to separate national 
existence : but, unfortunately, King George and his 
ministers were not statesmen, and they rushed 
blindly on to the dismemberment of the empire. 
x\s the time came for the Stamp Act to go into 
effect New York was on the verge of revolt. The 
poHtical fabric was mined and honeycombed, the 
powder laid : it needed but to press the button to 
produce an explosion that would shatter it to frag- 
ments. There were two parties in the field : the 
royalists, or Tories, who, with blind devotion, sup- 
ported the king : the Whigs, or •* rebels," who were 
for resisting: to the last extremitv what thev called 
the " tyranny " of king and Parliament. The strife 
between the two parties soon became intense ; 
words are powerless to depict it. The ver\' stones 
seemed to breathe defiance. ''Rebellion," "trea- 
son," '' resistance :o tyrants," ** confiscation of 
estates." '' imprisonment," '* death on the scaffold," 
were the topics ever in men's thoughts. Pamphlets, 
broadsides, hand-bills, filled the air ; ballads, epi- 
grams, and scurrilous verses were poured forth by 
the song-writers on both sides. The newspapers 
— Holt's Journal and Gaines' Mercury for the 



THE HEROIC AGE, 26 1 

Whigs, Rivington's Gazette for the royalists, steadily 
fanned the flame. Read a Whig newspaper of that 
day, and you find such terms as these : " Tories," 
" ministerial hirelings," " dependent placemen," '' con- 
tractors," " informers," '' banditti," and the like. Read 
a Tory newspaper, and it is " rebels," " traitors," 
'' despicable pamphleteers," " liars," " fomenters of 
sedition," " drunken vagabonds," " mobility," '' pul- 
piteers," " sons of licentiousness." The Tory news- 
papers averred that Congress took its votes after 
drinking thirty-two bumpers of Madeira, that the 
riffraff were, hired to insult the soldiers in order to 
provoke a collision, that Whig meetings were com- 
posed of drunken vagabonds, " raisers of riots," 
whose deity was the liberty pole, whose ever-staunch 
friend was the mob. They spoke of Holt's Journal 
as that " fund of lies and sedition " ; the Sons of 
Liberty as being composed of two sorts : those who by 
their debaucheries and ill conduct had reduced them- 
selves to poverty, and the Puritan ministers " who 
belched from the pulpit, liberty, independence, and a 
steady perseverance in shaking off their allegiance to 
the mother country." They spoke of the " distem- 
pered brain," " the violence of the banditti," of 
liberty as a word they had got '' by rote like a par- 
rot," and described the patriots as gathering at a 
tavern with ^' a Cooper or an Adams " at their head, 
where they got drunk, damned the king, ministers, 
and taxes, and vowed they would follow any ignis 
fatuits produced by demagogues." 

The Whig writers were even more bitter and sar- 
castic. They drew parallels between Rome in her 



262 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

decadence and themselves. "The Roman emper- 
ors," they said, '^ held the dignity of government in 
such open contempt that they frequently made their 
horses consuls. Ours, in this last point, go beyond 
them by making asses senators." A Tory they de- 
fined as "a thing whose head is in England, its body 
in America, and whose neck ought to be stretched." 
A favorite toast was, " Addition to Whigs, subtrac- 
tion to Tories, multiplication to friends of liberty, 
division to the enemies of America." They pictured 
the " ministerial hirelings" as ready to perform any 
dirty drudgery for the sake of preserving a titled and 
lucrative place. The British troops, who had been 
quartered on them to subdue and overawe them, were 
their pet aversion ; the soldiers returned the feeling in 
kind, and improved every chance to insult and annoy 
them. Naturally men indulging in such abuse soon 
began to carry arms, their houses became well-stocked 
arsenals, collisions occurred, women grew pale as their 
fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, armed for war and 
took opposite sides. 

This talk of resistance and preparations for resist- 
ing, it must be remembered, went on in the other 
colonies as well as in New York, and at last, on the 
suggestion of the eloquent patriot, James Otis, of 
Massachusetts, a Congress of the colonies was called 
to consider the matter. It met in the City Hall in 
New York on the 7th of October, 1765, nine of the 
thirteen colonies being represented. Two important 
state papers — a Declaration of Rights and an address 
to the king — were the results of this conference. 
Meanwhile the people were busily talking and acting. 



THE HEROIC AGE. 263 

Patriotic men vowed to drink no more wine, to go 
clad in sheepskins, to purchase no more wares from 
Great Britain, until the obnoxious act was repealed. 
Patriotic women agreed to wear only homespun, 
and thus taboo all British-made goods : while the 
young ladies vowed "to join hands with none but 
such as would to the utmost endeavor to abolish 
the custom of marrying with license." The ist of 
November had been appointed as the day when 
the Stamp Act should go into effect. As the day 
approaches, it is evident there will be trouble if any 
attempt is made to enforce it. Threats of resistance 
are openly made. Lord Grenville, the British Prime- 
Minister, has appointed Americans to sell the stamped 
paper, thinking thus to placate the colonists. It but 
adds to their resentment. '' If your father must die, 
will you then become his executioner in order to 
pocket the hangman's fees? If the ruin of your 
country is decreed, are you justified in taking part in 
the plunder?" These questions are asked of the 
stamp collectors, and they so intimidate them that 
they flee the country or resign. Oliver, the Massa- 
chusetts stamp-master, is hung in effigy on an elm in 
the outskirts of Boston. The Rhode Island stamp- 
master abdicates at the demand of his infuriated 
fellow-citizens. Jared Ingersoll, collector for Con- 
necticut, is met by five hundred mounted men as he 
is riding full speed to Hartford to secure protection 
from the authorities there, is conducted to the main 
street of Wethersfield, and there forced to resign, 
and to throw up his hat and cry " Liberty and 
Property ! " three times. James McEvers, the Han- 



264 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

over Square merchant, appointed for New York, 
has resigned ; so has Coxe, of New Jersey; Hughes, 
of Pennsylvania, and every collector south of the 
Potomac. The collector of Maryland is even now 
in Fort George, hiding from the wrath of his old 
neighbors and friends. The king is beggared of 
officers wherewith to enforce his decrees. On Octo- 
ber 23d, the ship Edwards^ bearing the stamped 
paper, arrives from England and, convoyed by a 
frigate and a tender, comes to her anchorage under 
the guns of Fort George. The water front is black 
with citizens, who receive her with menacing ges- 
tures, hisses, derisive cheers, while the ships in the 
harbor fly their colors at half mast in token of 
grief. That night, men evading the rattle watch 
steal through the streets and stealthily affix to 
trees and buildings " hand-bills," on which next 
morning the people read, written in a bold, free 
hand : 

PRO PATRICI. 

The first man that distributes or makes use of 
stamped paper let him take care of his house, person, 
and effects. Vox POPULI. 

We Dare ! 

The Sons of Liberty, it was seen, had been abroad 
that night. The query next arises, '' Who were these 
Sons of Liberty?" They were members of a great 
secret order of patriots recently organized in New 
York, and which soon had its branches in every 
remote town and hamlet. Its own definition of a 
Son of Liberty was *' a friend and asserter of the 



THE HEROIC AGE. 265 

rights of the people and the English Constitution, a 
warm patriot and opposer of the tyrannical acts and 
pretensions of the British Parliament." In royalist 
eyes, as we have seen, the Son of Liberty was quite 
a'different person. These hand-bills had their effect. 
McEvers, to whom the stamped paper was consigned, 
refused to take it. No one would touch the detested 
paper. At last, in despair, Lieutenant-Governor 
Golden had it stored in the fort until the ist of 
November should arrive. 

That the reader may have a clearer idea of what 
is to follow, we will pause a moment and consider 
briefly the theatre and the actors in the drama. 
The rallying point of the people throughout these 
troublous days was "the Fields," or "the Gommon," 
as it was indifferently called, and which we now 
know as the Gity Hall Park. It was the people's 
Aveiitine, their Sacred Hill, where they met after 
each aggression of the ministry, where they were 
addressed by the tribunes, and where they con- 
certed measures of resistance. These "tribunes" 
were men singularly well fitted for the responsibility 
thrust upon them. Among the most active were 
John Lamb, a New Yorker by birth, an optician by 
profession, who later became a colonel in the New 
York Line ; Isaac Sears, a merchant in the West India 
trade, the boldest, most alert, and hot-headed of the 
patriot leaders ; Alexander McDougall, a Scotchman 
by birth, who later became a major-general in the 
Continental army ; John Morin Scott, an eminent 
lawyer ; and Marinus Willett, who had marched with 



266 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Abercrombie to Lake George and Ticonderoga, with 
Bradstreet to Fort Frontenac, and who later became 
a lieutenant-colonel in the New York Line, and in 
1807 mayor of New York. 

Among the more moderate were Oliver Delancey, 
justice of the king's bench ; Robert Livingston, a 
famous lawyer ; Phillip Livingston, " hardware dealer 
near the Fly Market," later known as one of the sign- 
ers of the Declaration of Independence ; and Peter 
T. Curtenius, '' merchant," later commissary-general 
of New York in the Revolution. To these were 
afterwards added, Alexander Hamilton, a student in 
Columbia College, who later became the greatest 
statesman of his day; and John Jay, born in New 
York, December 12, 1745, at this time a law student 
in the city, later chief-justice of the United States, 
and a statesman of eminence. 

If such were the tribunes, who were the praetors? 
First in power was Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader 
Golden, who, until the newly appointed Governor Sir 
Henry Moore should arrive, was clothed with su- 
preme authority. He was a man eighty years of 
age, of the staunchest loyalty, but stubborn, obtuse, 
who knew of no way of governing except by force. 
There was General Thomas Gage, irreverently styled 
" Tom Gage " by the patriots, commander-in-chief 
of the British forces, in America, whose large double 
house, surrounded by beautiful gardens, stood on 
the present site of Nos. 6j and 69 Broadway ; Major 
Thomas James, commanding the royal regiment of 
artillery and owner of '' Vauxhall," a beautiful 
country-seat on the banks of the Hudson, and greatly 



THE HEROIC AGE. 



267 



detested by the people for his arrogance and boast- 
ful threats ; Rev. Samuel Auchmuty, D.D., rector 
of Trinity Church ; Myles Cooper, D.D., president 
of Kings College, later banished for his Tory senti- 




JOHN JAY. 



ments and pamphlets; John Antill, postmaster; 
Daniel Horsmanden, chief-justice of the province ; 
Samuel Bayard, assistant secretary ; Colonel Wil- 
liam Bayard, the great merchant ; John Harris 



268 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Cruger, treasurer of the city ; John Griffiths, master 
of the port ; Thomas Buchanan, to whom later the 
tea ships were consigned ; Daniel Matthews, later 
mayor, and many others, chiefly those who held 
office or received emoluments from the king. The 
fact should be emphasized, however, that there were 
many among the royalists of the noblest character, 
who were such purely from loyalty to the crown and 
from love to their country. The praetors had this 
advantage over the tribunes, that, quartered in the 
fort and in wooden barracks on the north side of 
the Common, were several companies of the i6th 
and 24th royal regiments, who might be trusted 
to enforce their commands. 

Governor Golden had, in the beginning, greatly 
incensed the people by repairing and strengthening 
the fort and by calling in troops from the outposts. 
" Did he mean to frighten tliem by this show of 
force?" the Whig newspapers asked. "Was New 
York a conquered country to be governed at the 
point of the bayonet ? " 

Thursday, the 31st of October, came, the day on 
which the governor was to take the oath required to 
carry the Stamp Act into effect. The city awoke 
in a fever of excitement. '' The last day of liberty," 
it was called ; bells tolled ; now and then muffled 
drums were heard beating the funeral march. At 
an»early hour crowds of country people began flock- 
ing in. There were, too, many sailors from the 
ships. The citizens joined them, and all paraded 
the streets, singing patriotic songs, which mercilessly 
lampooned the governor, the troops, and the Tories, 



THE HEROIC AGE. 269 

and threatened dire vengeance on any one having 
the hardihood to use the stamped paper. In the 
evening two hundred of the merchants trading to 
England proceeded to the City Arms tavern, on 
lower Broadway, in whose large room the belles and 
beaux of the day held their '' assemblies," and at- 
tended concerts and lectures. Here they made 
brave and patriotic speeches, and passed spirited 
resolutions '^ to import no goods froin England zuhile 
the Stamp Act remained unrepealed'' ; ''■to counter- 
mand all orders for spring goods already sent " y '''to 
sell no EnglisJi goods on commission " / and " to buy 
none from strangers that might be sent out.'' At 
the same time, a committee of correspondence, to 
urge similar action on the part of other cities was 
appointed. The merchants of Philadelphia signed 
this " non-importation agreement," as it was called, 
on the 14th of November following, the merchants 
of Boston on December 9th. So we see that both the 
famous Non-Importation Acts and the Committees 
of Correspondence of the Revolution all had their 
origin in New York. 

At the same time it was agreed that a grand 
mass-meeting should be held next evening, Novem- 
ber 1st, on the Common. We should have had no 
stirring, graphic account of what was done at this 
meeting and afterward, if a young country lad, one 
E. Carther, had not come to the city from his home 
in the Highlands, with scores of his neighbors and 
friends, eager to see and hear all that occurred on 
this fatal first of November. His letter is one of the 
classics of the day. It was written, he tells us, when 



270 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

" he was in high spirits and full of old Madeira." 
First, he informs his parents what the Governor did 
on this Stamp-Act day, in his contest with the 
patriots : 

" He sent for the soldiers from Tortoise ; he planted 
the cannon against the city ; he fixt the cow horns with 
musket balls. Two cannon were planted against the 
fort gate for fear the mob should break in loaded with 
grape shot ; he ordered the cannon of the Battery to be 
spiked up for fear the mob should come so far as to 
break out a civil war and nock down the fort. Major 
James had said : ' Never fear ; I drive New York with 
500 artillery soldiers.' He (Major James) placed sol- 
diers at the Gaol to prevent the Mob letting out the 
Prisoners. He ordered 15 artillery soldiers at his house 
near the Coladge where Black Sam formerly dwelt, and 
the rest of the soldiers he kept within the fort in readi- 
ness for an engagement. 

" In the evening the citizens began to muster about the 
streets. About seven in the evening I heard a great 
Hozaing near the Broadway. I ran that way with a num- 
ber of others, when the mob first began. They had an 
ephogy (effigy) of the Governor made of paper, which 
sat on an old chair that a seaman carried on his head. 
The mob went f^'oin the Fields down the Fly (Pearl 
Street), Hozaing at every corner, with amazing sight of 
candles. The mob went from there to Mr. McEvers', 
who was appointed for stamp master in London. Since 
he did not accept it, they honored him with three cheers. 
From thence they went to the fort, that the Governor 
might see his ephogy if he dare show his face. The 
mob gave seven Hozas and threatened the officer upon 
the wall. They jeered Major James for saying that he 



THE HEROIC AGE, 2/1 

could drive New York with 500 men. The mob had 
assurance enough to break open the Governor's coach- 
house, and took his coach from under the muzzles of his 
cannon. They put the ephogy upon the coach, one sat 
up for coachman with the whip in his hand, whilst others 
drawed it about the town down to the Coffee House and 
the Merchants' Exchange." 

After being addressed there by their leaders, they 
turned and marched back to the fort, " with about 
500 or 600 candles to alight them." 

" I ran down to the fort to hear what they said. As 
the mob came down it made a beautiful appearance. 
And, as soon as Major James saw them, I heard him 

say from off the walls : ' Here they come, by ! ' As 

soon as the mob saw the fort, they gave three cheers and 
came down to it. They went under the cannon which 
was planted against them with grape shot. They bid a 
soldier upon the walls to tell ' the rebel drummer ' (the 
Governor), or Major James, to give orders to fire. They 
placed the gallows against the fort gate, and took clubs 
and beat against it, and then gave three Hozas in defi- 
ance. They then concluded to burn the ephogy and the 
Governor's coach in the Bowling Green before their 
eyes." 

After burning the coach the multitude, which 
seems to have passed beyond the control of its 
leaders, went to Major James' house, and destroyed 
his furniture, saving only one red silk curtain and 
the colors of the royal regiment, which they 
carried off in triumph. 

" The third day," continues our letter-writer, " they 
was resolved to have the Governor, dead or ahve. The 



2j2 THE STORY OF MEW YORK. ^ 

fort got up the fascines in order for battle, and the mob 
began before dark. The Governor sent for his Council 
which held about two hours, whilst thousands stood by 
ready for the word. The Governor consented, and 
promised faithfully to have nothing to do with the 
stamps, and that he would send them back to London 
by Captain Davis, of the Edwards ^ 

This account is substantially correct, though 
written evidently from a royalist standpoint. At 
the demand of the people, the Governor delivered 
the stamp paper to the mayor and aldermen, who 
deposited it in the City Hall, and no further attempt 
was made to enforce the Stamp Act in New York. 
The next spring, 1766, a new ministry, with Pitt at 
its head, having come into power, the odious law 
was repealed ; the Parliament, however, asserted its 
right to tax the colonies by passing a '' Billeting 
Act," which forced the colonists to maintain the 
troops quartered among them. 

On the arrival of Sir Henry Moore a change was 
made in the policy of the government. He sought 
to rule rather by the graces of the courtier and the 
arts of the diplomatist, and succeeded so admirably 
that the New York Assembly was soon under his 
control, while the royalist party in the city grew to 
large proportions. He came as " a friend among 
friends," he said. The fort was dismantled, the 
troops dispersed, and the Governor, like a skilful 
surgeon, devoted himself to healing the wounds his 
predecessor had made. The earlier part of his reign 
was marked by one very significant event — a collision 
between the Sons of Liberty and the soldiers, in which 



THE HEROIC AGE. 273 

blood was shed, and which antedates by nearly two 
months the famous Boston massacre, of which so 
much has been made by historians. 

The quarrel arose about a very little matter — a 
piece of wood called a '* Liberty Pole," perhaps forty 
feet high, standing in the centre of the Common, di- 
rectly abreast of the soldiers' barracks. The soldiers 
wished very much to cut this pole down ; and the 
patriots were as fully determined that it should 
stand. Here again a principle was involved. The 
pole had been erected June 4, 1766, on the anniver- 
sary of the king's birthday, to celebrate the repeal 
of the Stamp Act. Great rejoicings and gratula- 
tions attended the act. As day broke, bells pealed 
and cannon thundered. An ox was ''barbecued" 
on the Common. Twenty-five barrels of beer and a 
hogshead of punch were provided for the feast. As 
for the liberty pole, just erected, it flaunted a large 
banner bearing the electric words : '' The King, Pitt, 
Liberty^ Twenty-five cannon were provided to fire 
a feu de joie, and twenty-five cords of wood were 
piled about a stout pole, having on its summit a 
pyramid of tar barrels, which at nightfall would 
flame into a royal bonfire in honor of His Gracious 
Majesty and the repeal of the odious act. Now the 
royalists, and the soldiers especially, were ill-pleased 
with the repeal of the Stamp Act, which they re- 
garded as a triumph for the people ; the liberty pole 
was to them, therefore, a symbol of defeat. Again, 
there was bad blood between the soldiers and the 
citizens, as indeed there ever must be between a 
spirited people and a body of troops sent out to 



274 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

overawe and coerce them. The soldiers, therefore, 
determined to destroy the pole which flaunted the 
*• Liberty rag " in their faces. On the loth of Au- 
gust they succeeded in cutting it down. This created 
great excitement, and next day a large body of citi- 
zens assembled on the Common with the intention 
of raising the pole again ; but they were at once set 
upon by a detachment of the 24th regiment and dis- 
persed, many being well bruised in the melee. Sears, 
McDougall, Lamb, and others of the tribunes now 
collected a little army of the Sons of Liberty, and 
triumphantly reared the pole. There it remained 
until the 23d of September, when the soldiers again 
destroyed it ; but within two days a third was reared 
in its place. So close a watch was then kept by the 
patriots, that the soldiers were unable to cut it down 
by stealth, and it stood in proud defiance until the 
iSthof March, 1767, when the people celebrated with 
much spirit the first anniversary of the repeal of the 
Stamp Act. This enraged the soldiers, and that 
night the pole was again prostrated. The next day 
it was raised, and the craft of the ironsmith invoked 
to secure it with braces and iron bands. At night 
the soldiers came against it, but were unable to de- 
stroy it ; the next night they attempted in vain to 
blow it up — an attempt which led the patriots to set 
a watch to guard their cherished piece of wood. As 
was expected, the valiant 24th soon came out against 
it, but were attacked by the guard and so soundly 
beaten that they fled into their barracks. On the 
22d and 23d they again attacked the pole, but the 
whole city having now become aroused, Governor 



THE HEROIC AGE. 2/5 

Moore interposed, and commanded the soldiers to 
cease their aggressions. 

The next attempt to destroy the pole occasioned 
the massacre to which we have referred. Three 
years had passed, and although several attempts had 
been made upon it. Liberty's staff still remained 
erect ; but on the i6th of January, 1770, a party of 
soldiers, by concealing themselves in an old building 
near by, succeeded in sallying upon the pole, and 
cutting it down, and piling it beside the door of 
Montague's tavern, where the Sons of Liberty were 
in the habit of holding their meetings. The next 
day, we are told, nearly the whole city came to- 
gether in the Common, and, after considering the 
subject, passed resolutions declaring that all soldiers 
below the rank of orderly, who appeared armed in 
the streets, were enemies to the peace of the city, 
and therefore liable to arrest, as were also those, 
whether armed or unarmed, who were found out of 
their barracks after roll-call. This was met with an 
insulting and taunting placard signed ''the i6th 
Regiment of Foot," which was posted throughout 
the city by the soldiers. Three of the latter engaged 
in this work were arrested by two stalwart Sons of 
Liberty — Isaac Sears and Walter Quackenbos — who 
attempted to escort them to the mayor's office, 
but were discovered by a party of soldiers from the 
lower barracks, who rushed to the rescue. The 
Liberty boys were on the alert, however, and at once 
ran to the aid of Sears and Quackenbos, and being 
armed with canes, bludgeons, knives, paving stones, 
and whatever else came to hand, a lively skirmish 



2/6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

ensued. The soldiers, finding themselves outnum- 
bered, retreated to a small eminence then called 
Golden Hill, on the present line of John Street be- 
tween Cliff and William, where, meeting a reinforce- 
ment, they made another stand ; the bells had by 
this time alarmed the city ; shops were closed ; arti- 
sans and laborers threw down their tools and rushed 
by hundreds to the aid of their brethren, and a gen- 
eral melee ensued. The patriots, however, had 
harder heads and stouter arms than the soldiers, and 
the latter were fprced steadily back and soon found 
themselves on the summit of the hill tousled and 
torn, their arms gone, and themselves quite at the 
mercy of the people, who hemmed them in on every 
side. The latter had not escaped injury. One had 
been thrust through with a bayonet. Several were 
bleeding from wounds. Francis Field, a Quaker, 
while standing on his own doorstep, had been cut 
severely in the cheek. At this juncture, another 
detachment of the i6th came up, and seeing the 
condition of affairs, called to their fellows to charge 
through the cordon of people and they would sup- 
port them by an attack in the rear. Further blood- 
shed was stopped by the officers of the regiment, 
who appeared and ordered the soldiers to their bar- 
racks. The latter, however, smarted under a sense 
of defeat, and renewed the fight earl}" next morning 
by attacking a woman who was returning from mar- 
ket, and who was rescued from her tormentors with 
a bayonet thrust through her cloak. About noon 
the military resumed the battle by making a wanton 
attack on a party of sailors passing through the 



THE HEROIC AGE. 2 77 

street. Soon an old man, a sailor, was thrust through 
and fell, whereupon the mayor tardily appeared and 
ordered the combatants to disperse. The soldiers 
derided him, and when a messenger was sent to ap- 
prize their officers, they prevented him with drawn 
swords from proceeding. Fortunately a party of 
Liberty Boys playing ball near by heard the shouts 
and sound of blows, and hurrying to the spot drove 
the assailants off. Still not satisfied, a party of mil- 
itary appeared in the afternoon while a large body 
of the citizens were gathered in the Common, and 
charged upon them, though not the slightest provo- 
cation had been offered. The crowd opened right 
and left to give them passage, but, bent on quarrel- 
ling, they began snatching canes from the gentlemen 
present, assailing them meantime with insulting 
epithets. The gentlemen resisted, however, and so 
stoutly cudgelled their assailants that they fled in 
confusion to their barracks. This two days' battle 
with the military began January 18, 1770. The 
Boston massacre occurred March 5, 1770, or nearly 
two months later. The Sons of Liberty, however, 
erected their pole, which stood until the opening of 
the great conflict. It was a true liberty pole, far 
superior to any that had preceded it. It is described 
as having been " of great length," protected for nearly 
two thirds its height by iron bands and rivets, and 
on its topmast was a vane which bore the magic 
word, " Liberty." 

The next event of significance in this epoch was 
''the Tea Party," which occurred in April, 1774- 

We have all read of the famous Boston ** Tea 



278 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Party" of December 16, 1773. New York held hers 
also, though it did not take place until some three 
months later, simply because the tea ship destined 
for New York was driven from her course by a tem- 
pest and nearly wrecked, so that she did not reach 
port until long after due. The Americans were so 
bitterly opposed to taxation without representation 
that Parliament decided to abolish nearly all im- 
posts ; that on tea and a few other articles was re- 
tained in order, as Lord North observed, "to try the 
question with America." The colonists promptly 
accepted the gage. When news of the " Tea Act " 
first reached them (October 20, 1773), the patriots of 
New York met and '' declared that tea commission- 
ers and stamp distributers were alike obnoxious," 
and passed votes of thanks to the masters of vessels 
who had refused to charter their ships to convey tea 
cargoes. The first tea ship was due in New York 
November 25, 1773, and "The Mohawks," an order 
identical with that which destroyed the tea in Bos- 
ton, held themselves in readiness to receive her. At 
the same time the Sons of Liberty, which as an order 
had nearly died out, was revived. December 15th 
news of the arrival of the tea ship at Boston reached 
New York, and a meeting of the Sons of Liberty was 
at once held in the City Hall. After letters from the 
committees of Boston and Philadelphia had been 
read, and while speakers were urging the union of 
the colonies for united resistance, the mayor and 
recorder of the city entered with a proposition from 
Governor Tryon (who had become governor in 1771), 
that on the arrival of the tea, it should be taken into 



THE HEROIC AGE. 279 

the fort at noon-day, where it should remain unti 
disposed of by the king, the council, or the owners ; 
a stern, emphatic " No," three times repeated, nega- 
tived the proposition. When the meeting adjourned, 
it was "until the arrival of the tea ship." By and 
by (April 18, 1774) the long-expected vessel was re- 
ported off Sandy Hook. She was the Nancy, Cap- 
tain Lockyer, and on the voyage, in a terrible storm, 
had lost her mizzen-mast and an anchor, sprung her 
main-top-mast, and sustained other injuries. As 
Holt's Joiirnal of April 21st wickedly said : 

'' Ever since her departure from Europe, she has met 
with a continued succession of misfortunes, having on 
board something worse than a Jonah, which, after being 
long tossed in the tempestuous ocean, it is hoped, like 
him, will be thrown back upon the place from whence it 
came. May it teach a lesson there as useful as the 
preaching of Jonah was to the Ninevites." 

In this spirit the people received the privileged 
East India Company's tea. 

Although so battered, the New York pilots refused 
to bring the Nancy farther than Sandy Hook. There, 
by agreement, a committee of the Sons of Liberty 
met her, and took possession of her boats that the 
crew might not escape, and thus prevent her being 
sent back to England. A part of the committee, 
however, kindly escorted Captain Lockyer to the 
city, where, under their guidance, he was permit- 
ted to visit his consignee, Mr. Henry White, and 
was given every facility for repairing his ship and 
procuring supplies for his return voyage, but under 



28o THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

no pretext was he permitted to approach the custom- 
house to enter his vessel. Three days passed, and 
the captain was able to say when he would be ready 
to depart. Next morning (April 2 1 st) the city awoke 
to find the following placard posted on the doors 
and street-corners : 

" To the Public : 

" The sense of the city relative to the landing of the 
East India Company's tea being signified to Captain 
Lockyer by the Committee, nevertheless it is the desire 
of a number of the citizens that at his departure from 
hence he shall see with his own eyes their detestation 
of the measures pursued by the ministry and by the East 
India Company to enslave this country. This will be 
declared by the convention of the people at his departure 
from this city, which will be on next Saturday morning 
at 9 o'clock, when, no doubt, every friend to this coun- 
try will attend. The bells will give the notice about an 
hour before he embarks from Murray's Wharf." 

Before Captain Lockyer could get away, however, 
the London, Captain Chambers, was announced. At 
the Hook the vessel was brought to and boarded by 
the Liberty Boys, as the Nancy had been, but Cap- 
tain Chambers positively denied having any tea on 
board. The Philadelphia committee, however, had 
sent word to New York that tea zvas on board, and 
the committee therefore demanded to see his mani- 
fests and cachets. These were shown, but as they 
mentioned no tea the ship was permitted to come 
up to the city. The captain's ordeal, however, was 
not yet over. He had had to deal with only a part, 
of the vigilance committee appointed to watch for 



THE -BEROtC AGE. 2S1 

the tabooed tea. As the London reached her berth, 
— about four in the afternoon, — the entire commit- 
tee marched on board and ordered the hatches 
opened, declaring their conviction that tea was on 
board, and assured Captain Chambers that they were 
ready to open every package in the cargo, if neces- 
sary, in order to find it. The captain, seeing that 
further concealment was impossible, confessed that 
he had eighteen chests on board ; whereupon captain 
and committee adjourned to the great public room 
in Fraunces Tavern to deliberate over the matter. 
They decided, says the chronicler, 

" to communicate the whole sense of the matter to the 
people, who were convened near the ship, which was ac- 
cordingly done. The Mohawks were prepared to do 
their duty at a proper hour, but the body of the people 
were so impatient that, before it arrived, a number of 
them boarded the ship, about 8 p.m., took out the tea, 
which was at hand, broke the cases and started their 
contents into the river, without doing any damage to the 
ship or cargo. Several persons of reputation were placed 
below to keep tally, and about the companion to prevent 
ill-disposed persons from going below the deck. At 10 
the people all dispersed in good order but in great wrath 
with the captain ; and it was not without some risk of 
his life that he escaped." 

Saturday came, and Captain Lockyer, of the 
Nancy, made ready to sail on his return voyage to 
London, his vessel, meantime, having been riding 
inside the Hook jealously guarded by the Vigilance 
Committee. As nine o'clock struck, the committee 
waited on him at his lodgings, at the coffee-house in 
Wall Street, to escort him to the wharf, while the 



282 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

people, warned an hour before by the sound of bells, 
assembled in vast crowds to witness the ceremony. 
The committee began proceedings by leading the 
captain on to the balcony of the coffee-house, that 
he might see the people and be seen by them. As 
he appeared a band struck up '' God save the King," 
and the people greeted him with shouts. Then a 
procession was formed, with captain and committee at 
its head, and to the sound of martial music the orderly 
throng moved down Wall Street to the dock, where 
a sloop had been provided to convey the captain to 
the Nancy. Captain and committee filed on board 
this vessel. Captain Chambers, glad to escape so 
easily, was also a passenger. As the sloop moved 
away every bell in the city, except those on the City 
Hall and Columbia College, rang triumphant peals, 
the ships in the harbor ran up their gayest colors, 
the liberty pole on the Common was decked, and 
the thunder of artillery at its foot proclaimed the 
triumph of the people. 

The last word we have of this brilliant affair is 
found in one of the newspapers of the day : '' On 
Sunday, at 10 A.M., the ship and the sloop, with the 
committee, weighed their anchors and stood to sea ; 
and at 2 P.M. the pilot-boat and the committee's 
sloop left her at the distance of three leagues from 
the Hook." 

These were the leading incidents in New York of 
the days immediately preceding the Revolution. 
During this period, in July, 1771, William Tryon, 
who had had an inglorious career as Governor of 
North Carolina, came to the city as Governor, and 
continued in office until deposed by the Revolution. 




XIV. 



WAR. 



Throughout the pregnant period above de- 
scribed, entire separation from the mother-country 
— independence — had been advocated by none. The 
colonists still spoke of themselves as Britons, strug- 
gling for a Briton's rights. At last came the battle 
of Lexington, after which they called themselves, 
not Britons, but Americans. A nation had been 
born in a moment. This battle of Lexington was 
fought on Wednesday, April 19, 1775, at four in the 
morning. On the Sunday following, at four in the 
afternoon, as Sears, McDougall, Lamb, and other 
members of the New York Committee of Safety 
were sitting in the committee-room, a horseman 
dashed furiously down Broadway and drew rein at 
their door. Evidently he had ridden far and fast. 
His horse's eyes were bloodshot, flecks of foam 
covered his flanks; he trembled and quivered like an 
aspen. The man bore a paper, which the committee- 
men opened and read. 

" Watertown, 
" Wednesday morniiig, near 10 of the clock, 

" To all friends of American Liberty, be it known that, 
this mor?ting, before break of day, a brigade, consisting of 

283 



284 ^^^ STOJ^V OF NEW YORK. 

about i,ooo or 1,200 men, landed at Fhif s farm, at Cam- 
bridge, and marched to Lexington, where they found a com- 
pany of our colony militia in arms, upon whom they fired 
without any provocation, a?id killed six ifien and wounded 
four others. By an express from Boston, we find another 
brigade are now upon their march from Boston^ supposed to 
be about 1,000. The bearer. Trail Bissel, is charged to 
alarm the country quite to Connecticut, and all persons are 
desired to furnish him with fresh horses as they may be 
needed. I have spoken with several who have seen the dead 
and wounded. Pray let the delegates from this colony to 
Connecticut see this : they know Colonel Foster, of Brook- 
field, one of the Delegates. 

"J. Palmer, 
" One of the Committee of S. V." (Safety). 

There were endorsements by the town clerk of 
Watertown, and the various Committees of Safety, 
telHng how far and how fast *' this messenger of fear 
and hate " had ridden. The first endorsement was 
dated at Worcester, April 19th ; then followed Brook- 
line, Thursday, 1 1 A.M. ; Norwich, Thursday, 4 P.M. ; 
New London, the same evening, at /o'clock ; Lyme, 
Friday morning, i o'clock ; Saybrook, 4 o'clock the 
same morning ; Killingsworth, at 7 o'clock, A.M. ; 
East Guilford, an hour later; Guilford, at 10 A.M.; 
Branford, at noon ; and Fairfield, Saturday morning, 
at 8, where the committee added additional in- 
telligence. The New York committee endorsed it 
on 4 o'clock, Sunday afternoon, and hurried the 
messenger on. He was at New Brunswick on Mon- 
day, at 2 in the morning ; in " Princeton," at 6 
o'clock; Trenton, 9 o'clock, the same day; and, as 



PVAJ?. 285 

appears from an entry in Christopher Marshall's 
diary, arrived in Philadelphia at 5 P-M. the same day. 
As if by magic, behind him the towns and hamlets 
sprang to arms. So well were the patriots organ- 
ized in Connecticut that in an instant, as it were, 
swift riders were spurring with the news to every part 
of the State. Jonathan Trumbull, her sturdy war 
governor, at once despatched an express to Colonel 
Israel Putnam, hero of the French and Indian wars, 
whom the messenger found ploughing in his field. 
He at once dropped the harness from his horse and 
spurred away to Trumbull, at Lebanon, for orders. 
*' Hurry forward to Concord and organize the army," 
said the latter ; " I will urge forward the troops, 
arms, munitions." Putnam spurred away, rode all 
that night, and the next morning at sunrise galloped 
into Concord, which was filled with the '' train bands " 
and militia companies of the patriots sadly in need 
of a leader — which they found in Putnam. Nearly 
every town in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut hurried on its minute men to the seat of 
war. One old gentlewoman in Connecticut sent for- 
ward her six sons and eleven grandsons, and, like the 
mother of the Gracchi, told them to come back with 
honor or not at all. Over the country roads of 
Connecticut marched the quotas of New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, followed soon by the rifle- 
men of Maryland and Virginia who had been trained 
to marksmanship in the Indian wars. Indignation 
meetings were held in every town, their united 
sentiment being voiced in the glowing words of 
Dr. Joseph Warren, of Boston : " When liberty is 



286 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the prize, who would stoop to waste a coward 
thought on hfe ? We esteem no sacrifice too great, 
no conflict too severe, to redeem our inestimable 
rights and privileges." Although the government 
was in the hands of the Tories, the patriots of New 
York were no whit behind the other colonies in 
measures of resistance. On the same day that the 
news was received, Colonel Marinus Willett tells us: 

" There was a general insurrection of the population, 
who assembled, and not being able to secure the key 
of the arsenal (in the City Hall) where the colony's 
arms were deposited, forced open the door and took 
600 muskets, with bayonets, and cartridge-boxes filled 
with ball cartridges. These arms were distributed 
among the more active citizens, who formed themselves 
into a volunteer corps and assumed the government of 
the city." 

Governor Tryon was in England. For Gov- 
ernor Colden the people had a hearty contempt. 
The garrison at this time comprised 100 regulars of 
the 1 8th Regiment (Royal Irish) under Major Isaac 
Hamilton, who confined themselves to their bar- 
racks. Bodies of men went boldly to the custom- 
house, demanded the keys, and took possession of 
the public stores. Two vessels lay at the dock, about 
to sail with supplies for General Gage's troops in 
Boston. Isaac Sears and John Lamb, with their 
Liberty Boys, boarded them and quickly unloaded 
the cargoes, valued at eighty thousand pounds. 
Monday came. All business was stopped. Bodies 
of armed citizens paraded the streets. The regular 



WAJi. 287 

authority was overturned. In Paris there would have 
been anarchy — the Jacobins and the Commune ; but 
the citizens of New York, eight days after the over- 
throw (May 1st), quietly elected a Committee of One 
Hundred to govern them until the Continental Con- 
gress, which was to meet in Philadelphia in ten days, 
should constitute other authority. The tribunes, 
Sears, Lamb, McDougall, Curtenius, Scott, Living- 
ston, appear among the One Hundred, but the ma- 
jority were either Royalists or moderate Whigs. At 
the same time, delegates to a Provincial Congress 
were elected. 

Scarcely were these exciting events over, when it 
was announced that the delegates from New Eng- 
land to the Continental Congress were approaching 
the city, and almost the entire town turned out to 
give them a royal welcome. The party comprised 
John Hancock, President of Congress, Thomas Cush- 
ing, Robert Treat Paine, and Samuel Adams, of 
Massachusetts ; and Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sher- 
man, and Silas Deane, of Connecticut. As it hap- 
pened, Miss Dorothy Quincy, of Boston, the afifi- 
anced bride of Governor Hancock, had been left 
behind at the mansion of his friend, Thaddeus Burr, 
in P^airfield, and to this fortunate circumstance we 
are indebted for the following sprightly -letter to her 
describing the welcome. The letter is dated at New 
York, Sabbath evening. May 7, 1775, and proceeds: 

" At Kingsbridge, I found the delegates of Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut with a number of gentlemen from 
New York and a guard of the troop. I dined, and then 
set out in procession for New York, the carriage of your 



288 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

humble servant, of course, being first in the procession. 
When we arrived within three miles of the city, we were 
met by the Grenadier Company and regiment of the city 
militia under arms ; gentlemen in carriages and on horse- 
back, and many thousands of persons on foot ; the roads 
filled with people, and the greatest cloud of dust I ever 
saw. In this situation we entered the city, and passing 
through the principal streets amidst the acclamations of 
thousands, were set down at Mr. Francis' (the popular 
tavern of the city). After entering the house three Huz- 
zas were given, and the people by degrees dispersed. 
When I got within a mile of the city my carriage was 
stopped, and persons approaching with proper harnesses 
insisted upon taking out my horses and dragging me into 
and through the city — a circumstance I would not have 
had taken place upon any consideration, not being fond 
of such parade. I begged and entreated that they would 
suspend the design, and asked it as a favor, and the mat- 
ter subsided ; but when I got to the entrance of the city, 
and the number of spectators increased to perhaps seven 
thousand or more, they declared they would have the 
horses out, and would drag me themselves through the 
city. I repeated my request that they would so far 
oblige me as not to insist upon it. They would not 
hearken, and I was obliged to apply to the leading gen- 
tlemen in the procession to intercede with them. They 
were at last prevailed upon, and I proceeded. To-mor- 
row morning we propose to cross the ferry. We are to 
have a large guard in several boats, and a number of the 
city gentlemen will attend us over. I can't think they 
will dare to attack us." 

The " they " referred to were the Tories. One of 
the first acts of the Congress to which Governor 



WAR. 



289 



Hancock and his friends were bound, was to appoint 
George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the army 
now gathered about Boston. The latter, as soon as 
news of Bunker Hill arrived, set out for the seat of 
war, and reached Hoboken on Sunday, June 25th. 

There was in New York at this time quite a corps 
of delightful letter-writers, of whom Gilbert Living- 
ston, a member of the famous Livingston family ; 
Solomon Drowne, a surgeon in the army ; and John 
Varick, a student of medicine, were chief, who in 
letters to absent friends gave animated pictures of 
the scenes transpiring in the city. Livingston, for 
instance, thus wrote of Washington's entry: 

" Last Sunday, about two o'clock, the generals, Wash- 
ington, Lee, and Schuyler, arrived. They crossed the 
North River at Hoback (now Hoboken) and landed at 
Col. Lispenard's. There were eight or ten companies 
under arms, all in uniform, who marched out to Lispe- 
nard's. The procession began from there thus : The 
companies first, Congress next, two of the Continental 
Congress next, general officers next, and a company of 
horse from Philadelphia, who came with the generals, 
brought up the rear. There was an innumerable com- 
pany of people — men, women, and children— present." 

By a strange coincidence Governor Tryon arrived 
the same evening from England, and was escorted 
by the magistrates and militia to the residence of the 
Hon. Hugh Wallace, where the usual felicitations 
were indulged in. Washington next morning met 
the Provincial Congress, then sitting in the city, and 
conferred with it on military affairs, chiefly no doubt 
as to the equipping and officering of the three thou- 



290 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

sand men which the Continental Congress had as- 
signed to New York as her quota for the army about 
being formed. Four regiments were raised under 
this call, and Colonels McDougall, Van Schaick, and 
Holmes were appointed to command them. An ar- 
tillery company formed part of the force, its captain 
being John Lamb, whom we have before met. He 
was soon ordered by the New York Congress to re- 
move the guns in Fort George to the forts that had 
been raised to guard the passes of the Hudson in the 
Highlands. While doing this on the night of Au- 
gust 23d, he was fired on by a sentinel party in a 
launch belonging to the British frigate Asia stationed 
near by. Lamb returned the fire, and killed one man 
and wounded several. The Asia, in return, fired a 
broadside into the city, her balls ploughing through 
several houses in the Whitehall and wounding three 
of Lamb's men. A great panic then ensued. Gov- 
ernor Tryon, writing six days after, observed that at 
least one third of the inhabitants had left the city. 
As for the Asia, the provincial authorities ordered 
that as she had fired upon the city she could no 
longer be allowed communication with it, and that 
in future fresh provisions destined for her must be 
left on Governor's Island. The more ardent patriots 
deemed this too light a punishment, and they seized 
and burned several inoffensive milk boats and coun- 
try sloops that supplied the hated frigate with pro- 
visions. " Such is the rage of the present animosity,'' 
wrote Tryon in recording the act. A month later he 
himself was forced to fly from this animosity to the 
ship DitcJiess of GordoT> under protection of the Asia, 



JVj^J?. 291 

An incident that occurred in June of this year 
shows admirably the temper of the men of that day. 
The one hundred men of the Royal Irish Regiment 
which had been garrisoning the city, were ordered to 
Boston to reinforce General Gage, who was closely 
besieged by the patriot army under Washington and 
Putnam. The Asm lay at the dock, foot of Broad 
Street, to receive them. The Committee of One 
Hundred had consented that the troops should be 
allowed to embark, against the protest of the Sons 
of Liberty. On the morning of the 6th, therefore, 
the column took up its line of march down Broad 
Street, but a spying Son of Liberty chanced to note 
that there were six cartloads of spare arms preceding 
the British column, and hurried with the news to 
Colonel Willett. Now these spare arms belonged 
to the colony, and the patriots had long cast covetous 
eyes upon them, arms and munitions of war being 
the things they then stood most in need of. Colonel 
Willett, therefore, bade the man alarm the city, and 
himself hastened to the head of the column and 
seized the leading horse by the bit. The column 
stopped and Major Hamilton, commanding, hurried 
forward and began an angry colloquy with the in- 
truder. Colonel Willett declared that no permission 
to remove the arms had been granted, and continued 
arguing until a great crowd, including many of his 
fellow-leaders, had collected ; when he turned the 
cart to the right and told the carman to drive up 
Beaver Street. The other five carts were made to 
follow amid the huzzas of the people, while the 
despoiled British were allowed to file on board the 



292 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Asia These arms were later used in equipping the 
four New York regiments. 

All through the summer of 1775, and the winter of 
1775-76, the British remained cooped up in Boston, 
closely watched by Washington, while the world 
looked on in surprise. New York, soon to be the 
theatre of events, was neglected. It was a sad, de- 
pressing year for her. All business was suspended. 
The present was unsettled, and the future terrible 
with forebodings. John Morin Scott, in a letter 
dated November 15, 1775, thus described the general 
depression : 

" Every ofifice shut up almost but Sam Jones', who will 
work for 6 / a day and live accordingly. All business 
stagnated, the city half deserted for fear of a bombard- 
ment, A new Congress elected. Those for New York, 
you will see by the papers, changed for the better. All 
staunch Whigs now, , . , Nothing from t' other side 
of the water but a fearful looking for of wrath. Our Con- 
tinental petition most probably condemned — the bulk of 
the nation, it is said, against us ; and a bloody campaign 
next summer. But let us be prepared for the worst. 
Who can prize life without liberty ? it is a bauble only fit 
to be thrown away," 

Early in January Washington discovered that 
Lord Howe had a movement in hand, and, con- 
vinced that New York was his objective point, 
called the attention of Congress to it, and on the 
6th sent General Charles Lee thither to take com- 
mand and fortify the city. Lee was a regularly 
educated soldier, having been an officer in the 
British service, and was therefore well adapted for 



tvA/e. 293 

the position. The British movement was, in feet, 
the expedition of Sir Henry CHnton against the 
CaroHnas, and as it happened, CHnton, his fleet, and 
General Lee came into New York on the same day. 
The former, however, remained but a few days, and 
then departed for the South. 

General Lee's first step was to map out a series of 
fortifications for the defence of the city. His next, 
to call before him the Tories, who had long been 
noted for their virulence and bitterness, and admin- 
ister an iron-clad oath, of which the following, omit- 
ting a few forms and repetitions, is a faithful copy : 

" I, , here in the presence of Almighty God, as 

I hope for ease, honor, and comfort in this world, and 
happiness in the world to come, most earnestly, devoutly, 
and religiously do swear, that I will neither directly nor 
indirectly assist the wicked instruments of ministerial 
tyranny and villainy commonly called the King's troops 
and navy, by furnishing them with provisions and re- 
freshments of any kind unless authorized by the Con- 
tinental Congress. I do also swear, by the terrible and 
Almighty God, that I will neither directly nor indirectly 
convey any intelligence ... to the enemy, and I also 
pledge myself if I should by accident get knowledge of 
such treasons to immediately inform the Committee of 
Safety, and to take arms and defend my country when- 
ever called upon by the voice of the Continental Con- 
gress." 

Captain Sears was sent out into Long Island to 
administer this oath to the Tories there, who had 
been particularly active. He was pretty successful, 
for he soon wrote General Lee, that at Newtown he 



294 ^-^^ STORY OF NEW YORIC. 

had administered the oath to four " grate Tories." 
At Jamaica he sent out scouting parties, but had 
been able ''to ketch but five Tories," although, to 
make amends, they were " of the first rank," all of 
whom " swallowed the oath." " I can assure your 
Honor," he concludes, "they are a set of villains in 
this country, and I believe the better half of them 
are waiting for support and intend to take up arms 
against us." On March I2th, Lee began entrenching. 
" We are now a city of war," wrote one of the letter- 
writers soon after. Lee was soon sent south to take 
command in that quarter, and Lord Stirling, a brave 
and efficient officer was appointed in his place. 

On March 17, 1776, Howe evacuated Boston. 
Washington and his generals supposed that he would 
at once attack New York; but instead he sailed to 
Halifax to await the coming of a greater armament 
from England. The patriot army, however, was hasti- 
ly transferred from Cambridge to New York, as it 
was evident that that city would be the next point of 
attack. General Israel Putnam arrived April 4th, and 
made head-quarters in the fine mansion of Captain 
Kennedy, of the British army, at No. i Broadway. 
He held command until Washington arrived, whicli 
event occurred on the 13th of April, the Commander- 
in-Chief selecting as head-quarters the Richmond 
Hill House, later occupied by Vice-President Adams, 
and still later by Colonel Aaron Burr ; and where he 
was soon joined by Mrs. Washington and his family. 
" The people here do not seem so apprehensive of 
the soldiers' landing since the account of the happy 
fact of our enemies evacuating the city of Boston, 



on which I congratulate you and every other friend 
of Liberty," wrote John Varick to his brother, on 
April 1st. 

The summer was devoted mainly fo drilling, or- 
ganizing, and fortifying, for every one knew that a 
powerful armament would soon attack the city. 
Stirring and startling incidents, however, were con- 
tinually occurring to break the monotony of en- 
trenching. One day, for instance, a party is sent off 
to break up a camp of Tories who had fortified 
themselves without the city, and were raiding the 
country. Another day two negroes are arrested for 
conveying intelligence to Governor Tryon, " that 
villainous rascal on board the Duchess of Gordon^' 
as one of the letter-writers put it. Another day a 
letter came from Kinderhook detailing an affair 
which had recently happened at a quilting frolic 
there, which convulsed the young officers with mirth, 
and " heartened " them more than a great victory. 
At this quilting it seems but one young man was 
present, the others being in the army. He was a 
Tory, and very soon began to cast aspersions on 
'Congress, whereupon he was seized by the young 
women present, stripped to his waist, coated with 
molasses in lieu of tar, and feathered with the down 
from the tops of flags or " cat-tails " found in the 
marshes. The daughter of Parson Buell, a noted 
patriot and divine of the day, is said to have been a 
ring-leader in the work. 

'* Tory rides " were another diversion. '' We had 
some grand Tory rides in this city this week, and in 
particular yesterday," wrote Peter Elting on June 



296 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

13th. '' Several of them were handled very rough, 
being carried through the streets on rails, their 
clothes torn from their backs, and their bodies pretty 
well mingled with the dust." 

Thus the summer flew on, and the momentous 
Fourth of July, 1776, arrived. The Declaration of 
Independence was adopted. Washington received 
an ofificial copy on the 9th of July, with instructions 
to have it read to the troops. Accordingly, at six 
o'clock in the evening, the brigades were drawn up 
on their respective parades, while the instrument 
was read by the brigade commanders or their aides. 
One of the brigades was honored by the presence of 
the Commander-in-Chief. It was drawn up in a hol- 
low square on the historic Common. Within the 
square Washington sat on horseback, while an aide 
in a clear voice, read the Declaration. *' When it 
was concluded," says an eye-witness, " three hearty 
cheers were given." In the city, bells were rung and 
guns fired in honor of the event, and a multitude of 
soldiers and citizens gave further expression to their 
feelings by attacking and demolishing a leaden 
statue of George III., which had been erected in 
1770 on the Bowling Green. With grim irony they 
mounted the statue on a cart and drew it with oxen 
into the heart of Connecticut (Litchfield), where the 
ladies, under the lead of Oliver Wolcott, a famous 
patriot leader of that State, ran it into bullets for 
the army. This conversion of King George's statue 
into bullets wherewith to destroy King George's 
soldiers formed the butt of joke, lampoon, and pun 
for many a day. 



Next morning, at White Plains, the Provincial 
Congress listened to the reading of the Declaration, 
and at its close pledged themselves to sustain it 
" at the risk of their lives and fortunes." There 
were men, too, among them, with fortunes and 
position to lose. To Van Cortlandt, Van Rens- 
selaer, Schuyler, the Morrises, and the Livingstons, 
that pledge meant the sacrifice of feudal rights 
and manorial privileges, yet they seem not to have 
hesitated an instant. They sent a swift messenger 
to the New York delegates in Congress empowering 
them to vote for the Declaration. They had it pro- 
claimed by beat of drum in White Plains, and 
ordered that it should be publicly read from the 
City Hall in Wall Street, within reach of the guns 
of the British fleet. 

The public reading of the Declaration in New 
York, on July i8th, was one of the great events of 
the day. Almost the whole city came together 
and received each noble sentiment with resounding 
cheers, and on its conclusion a few daring spirits 
entered the court-room, brought out the royal coat 
of arms, and burned it in the street. All this was 
done, it must be remembered, in the face of a 
powerful enemy, for at that moment Putnam's 
videttes might have counted, from their post on 
Columbia Heights, one hundred and thirty enemy 
sails whitening the Narrows — the fleet of Sir William 
Howe from Halifax, with the Boston veterans and 
reinforcements. Only six days before — on the 12th 
— two frigates, the Rose and the Phcenix^ had dashed 
past the city, fired upon and returning the fire, and 



298 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

were now anchored above in the Hudson, a watchful 
enemy in the rear. But in order to know all about 
this fleet, and what it was doing, or hoped to do 
here, it will be necessary to cross over to England 
and take up the threads of events there. 

Parliament had met October 26, 1775. The first 
and most important subject touched on in the king's 
opening speech was the American rebellion. '' The 
colonists sought to set up an independent empire," 
he charged. That '' they had raised troops, collected 
a naval force, seized the public revenues, assumed 
legislative, executive, and judicial powers," were 
counts in the long indictment, and he asked Parlia- 
ment for men and means sufificient for a vigorous 
prosecution of the war. The king conquered, though 
Burke, Fox, Barre, Conway, Dunning, and others 
spoke powerfully in favor of America. An army of 
25,000 men was voted for the American war, with a 
fleet and ample supplies. A plan for a campaign 
was at once adopted. Sir William Howe, with the 
main body of the army, was to capture and hold 
New York. Sir Guy Carleton and General Burgoyne 
were to march from Canada down the Hudson and 
divide the Eastern colonies from the Middle and 
Southern, while Lord Cornwallis was to ravage Vir- 
ginia and the Carolinas. The one hundred and 
thirty sail now in the Narrows were here in pursu- 
ance of that plan. They were joined, about the 
middle of July, by a large reinforcement from Eng- 
land under Admiral Howe, and then there were 
three hundred ships of war and transports in the 
harbor. On August 1st Generals Clinton and Corn- 



WAR. 299 

wallis came in, having been repulsed at Charleston ; 
and on August 12th the third and last reinforcement 
arrived in the person of the British Guards and of 
De Heister's division of Hessians. To explain the 
presence of these Hessians we will digress briefly. 
The war was extremely unpopular with the masses 
in England. Pitt, Burke, and other Whig leaders 
carried the people with them, and when the king 
came to ask for volunteers for the American war, he 
could not find them. Instead, placards were posted 
in London streets calling for volunteers to join the 
Americans. Victory to America and the re-establish- 
ment of the British constitution was the prevailing 
toast at Whig banquets. The clever bon mot of the 
American wits, that General Gage, on returning to 
England, was to be created " Lord Lexington, Baron 
of Bunker Hill," was nowhere more greatly relished 
than in London. A bright woman's epigram on Earl 
Percy, who commanded the British at Concord and 
Lexington — 

' ' Earl Percy, there as well as here, 
The ladies think is very queer ; 
They give him tea and keep him warm, 
For surely he can do no harm " — 

was widely quoted in the English newspapers, while 
the London Morning Chronicle thus wrote of the 
brave Continentals who stormed Ticonderoga : 

" Brave race of men that lately showed 
The British fire in you renewed. 
May God your land secure, defend, 
(Your constant guardian, your best friend,) 
Unite your hearts, your councils bless. 
And grant your just designs success." 



300 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Another straw, indicating the state of popular 
feeling, is seen in the case of a young fellow who 
went into a cook-shop in Covent Garden with his 
companions, and while there proposed to show them 
how the Americans would serve Boston. *' Sup- 
pose," said he, *' that pan over the charcoal fire to be 
the town, and the sausage in it to be General Gage 
and the king's troops. In that case they will be served 
thus " : and he threw a paper of gunpowder under 
the pan, which blew its contents high into the air. 

King George, finding it impossible to recruit his 
army with English yeomen, turned his attention to 
foreign mercenaries. At first he tried to buy Rus- 
sian peasants ; but Catherine, Empress of Russia, 
said she thought it beneath the dignity of her crown 
to sell her subjects to conquer brave and oppressed 
people. In the little German principalities along 
the Rhine, however, the British agent. Colonel 
Fawcett, was more successful. From the Landgrave 
of Hesse Cassel he bought 1,200 infantry; from the 
Duke of Brunswick 3,900, and a few cavalry ; and 
from the Count of Hanau 660, the price paid being 
$34.50 per man, three wounded men to count as one 
dead. The arrival of this great armament — much 
larger than the famous Armada launched by Philip 
II. of Spain against England in 1588, — while it in- 
spired great terror among non-combatants, does not 
seem to have discouraged the Continentals. 

'' I could not get your shoes," wrote Peter Elting 
to Captain Varick, July 9th, " on account of the 
alarm on the arrival o£ the fleet, since which almost 
all business in town is knocked up. The fleet," he 



IVAJ^. 



301 



adds, "' now lays very quiet at the watering-place 
waiting a reinforcement from England, when, they 
say, they shall little regard our batteries. We as 
little regard them. Our men are in high spirits, and 
ready to meet them at any hour." 




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XV. 

TWO BATTLES. 

On the 1 8th of August it was apparent to all that 
a battle was at hand. Washington felt it, and issued 
a stirring address to his army, exhorting them that 
the time had come when the future of America was 
to be determined. " The fate of unborn millions 
will now depend under God on the courage and 
conduct of this army," he said. " Our cruel and 
unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave 
resistance or the most abject submission. We have, 
therefore, to conquer or die ! " But though all knew 
that the blow must soon fall, none could tell with 
certainty where it would strike. The enemy might 
sail up the Hudson or the East River, land in West- 
chester, and attack the city from the rear ; he might 
disembark on Long Island and advance from that 
quarter ; or he might make a direct attack. Howe 
chose the Long Island approach ; but while he is 
slowly making preparations, let us sketch the posi- 
tion, the numbers, and the personnel of the contend- 
ing forces. New York at this time contained 25,000 
inhabitants and 4,000 houses, the latter built along 
both rivers, forming an acute angle, thus <. Most 
of the town was below the present Chambers Street, 
and comprised an area less than one mile square. 

302 



TIVO BATTLES. » 303 

But one highway led off the island— the Kingsbridge, 
or " Post Road," which left Broadway at the present 
post-ofifice, followed the line of Chatham Street to 
Chatham Square, thence the Bowery and Fourth 
Avenue to 14th Street, crossed Union Square diago- 
nally and followed Broadway to Madison Square, 
then turned northeast and continued on between 
Fourth and Second avenues to 53d Street, turned 
farther east beyond the line of Second Avenue until 
it reached 92d Street, where it turned west and en- 
tered Central Park, leaving it again at a hollow in 
the hills called McGowan's Pass from the fact that a 
man named McGowan had his farm-house there. 
This pass was about on the line of 107th Street, and 
beyond, the road followed Harlem Lane to the end 
of the island, crossing the Harlem by a long wooden 
bridge known as the "King's Bridge"; a short dis- 
tance beyond, it forked, one branch leading to Al- 
bany, and the other to Boston. This was the only 
bridge and road by which an army could leave the 
island. There was another road called the " Bloom- 
ingdale Road," on the west side, which left the 
Kingsbridge Road at about the present corner of 
23d Street and Fifth Avenue, and passed through 
the district of Bloomingdale to the farm-house of 
Adrian Hoofland at io8th Street. There was still 
another road leading up from the city along the 
present line of Greenwich Street to the village of 
Greenwich on the Hudson, which stood about on the 
present line of 14th Street, and which then connected 
with a lane running northeast with the Bloomingdale 
Road at 43d Street. 



304 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

The reader will please keep these highways in 
mind, as we shall again recur to them. It was evi- 
dent that the city and island being surrounded by 
navigable waters, were entirely at the mercy of a 
naval armament unless its defences were sufficiently 
strong to repulse an attack. Washington had faith 
in his defences. 

Let us see what they were. On the Hudson 
River side the principal ones were McDougall's and 
the Oyster Batteries on a little eminence in the rear 
of Trinity Church, the first of two, and the last of 
three guns. Fort George and the Grand Battery 
came next, on the north line of the present Battery, 
the first mounting six guns and the last twenty- 
three. Then on the East River front were the 
Whitehall Battery on Whitehall Dock, at the foot of 
the present Whitehall Street ; Waterbury's, on the 
dock at the angle of Catharine and Cherry streets ; 
Badlaw's, between Madison and Monroe ; Spencer's, 
between Clinton and Montgomery ; Jones Hill, a 
little north of the intersection of Broome and Pitt, 
and connected with Spencer's by a line of redoubts ; 
a circular battery on the corner of Grand and the 
Bowery, and another corner of Grand and Eldridge. 
Last, but not least, was the Bayard Hill redoubt, 
one of the strongest of the city's defences. It stood 
on the corner of Grand and Mulberry, and is described 
as having been " a powerful, irregular heptagonal 
redoubt mounting eighteen guns, and commanding 
the city and its approaches." As for barricades, 
Paris under the Commune presented no more grisly 
spectacle. Every street leading up from the water 




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3o6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

was defended by a cordon of boxes and barrels, 
kegs, mahogany logs, stones, and branches of trees. 
City Hall Park was quite enclosed by them. There 
was one across Broadway opposite St. Paul's Church, 
one at the head of Vesey, of Barclay, Warren, and 
Murray streets. A cordon of logs closed Beekman 
Street to travel. There was a right-angled bulwark 
on the present site of the Tribune building. An- 
other at the point where Centre Street leaves the 
Common. Frankfort and Chatham were also barred. 
But the batteries on Manhattan Island were not 
the only ones relied on by Washington to protect the 
city. As can now be seen, Brooklyn and Columbia 
Heights across the river commanded the city, and 
there the more powerful works had been constructed. 
A chain of earthworks, whose sites are now occu- 
pied by Brooklyn mansions, was thrown up across 
the promontory from Gowanus Marsh to Wallabout 
Bay. First, and nearest Gowanus Creek, was Fort 
Box, on the line of the present Pacific Street. Fort 
Greene came next, three hundred yards to the left 
of Fort Box, between the present State and Scher- 
merhorn streets. It was a star-shaped battery of 
six guns, the largest in the series. A small circular 
battery, called " the oblong redoubt," came next ; 
and to the northeast crowning the hill now form- 
ing a part of Washington Park, was Fort Put- 
nam. A small redoubt about the middle of the 
present Cumberland Street completed the series, 
which were connected throughout by a line of in- 
trenchments, and protected by ditches and abatis. 
These forts were intended to defend the Heights. 



TWO BATTLES. 30/ 

There were also supporting forts— one on Cobble 
Hill, near the intersection of Court and Atlantic 
streets; a redoubt at the mill, corner of Degraw and 
Bond ; Fort Defiance, at Red Hook ; and Fort Stir- 
ling, commanding the East River channel. In reality, 
the Brooklyn forts were the key to the position. 

Swarming like bees upon these fortifications, 
marching through the streets, drilling on parade, 
was perhaps the most incongruous and oddly- 
caparisoned army recruited since Falstaff's day. 
There were the tow frocks and tarnished scarlet 
regimentals— mementos of the bloody French wars 
—of the Connecticut troops; the dark-blue coats, 
with red facings, of the Delaware militia ; the green 
hunting shirts and leggins of the Marylanders. 
There were the New Jersey riflemen : some in short, 
red coats and striped trousers ; some in blue coats 
with leather breeches, ending in blue-yarn stockings, 
and heavy shoes with brass buckles. Now a Penn- 
sylvania regiment marched by in variegated costume: 
one company clad in brown coats, faced with white, 
and adorned with huge metal buttons; another, 
showing blue coats, faced with red; a third, brown 
coats faced with buff. Many wore buckskin frocks 
and leggins. Some marched and fought in their 
shirt-sleeves. The Virginians created some feeling 
by their superior uniform— white frocks, adorned 
with ruffles at neck, wrists, and elbows ; black, 
broad-brimmed slouch hats; black stocks, and hair 
in long queues. The arms of this impromptu army 
were quite as diverse and incongruous. The shot- 
gun and old king's arm of the New England farmer, 



308 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the long '^ goose gun " of the New York Knicker- 
bocker, the musket of the Jerseyman and Mary- 
lander, the deer-slaying rifle of the Pennsylvania and 
Virginia rangers, were all represented. Very few 
were furnished with bayonets or proper accoutre- 
ments. There were ostensibly 28,000 men in this 
army, but only 19,000 in reality, the others being on 
the sick-list. A few had seen service in the French 
and Indian wars ; the regiments of the Continental 
line had had the benefit of a year's drill ; but the 
others were raw levies hastily summoned from farms 
and workshops for the defence of the city. The 
army was divided into five divisions : Putnam's, 
which comprised the brigades of Clinton, Scott, and 
Fellows ; Heath's division, comprising the brigades 
of Mifflin, Clinton, Spencer, Parsons, and Wads- 
worth ; Sullivan's division, consisting of Stirling's 
and McDougall's brigades ; Green's division, of 
Nixon's and Hand's brigades ; the Connecticut 
Militia, under General Wolcott; the Long Island 
Militia, under General Woodhull ; and Knox's di- 
vision of artillery, in which, as captain of a battery, 
served Alexander Hamilton. In the same army, 
serving as aide to General Putnam, was a young 
man with whom, later, his name was associated — 
Aaron Burr, a youth of twenty, son of President 
Burr, of Princeton College, and grandson of the 
famous divine, Jonathan Edwards. The general 
officers, with one exception — Spencer, — were young 
in years, and had had little or no military training. 
Many of the subordinate officers, though acquitting 
themselves like men, were but boys in years ; 



TIVO BATTLES. 



309 



Hamliton, for instance, was but nineteen ; Burr, as 
we have seen, twenty; and Nicholas Fish, Scott's 
brigade-major, but eighteen. 

One arm of the patriot power must not go unmen- 
tioned — the odd little fleet of schooners, sloops, peri- 
augers, row galleys, and whale boats commanded by 
Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Tupper that patrolled 
the harbor, and picked up spies, deserters, provision 
boats, and intelligence, with the greatest impartial- 
ity. It was one of the commanders of this fleet who, 
on reporting the enemy short of provisions, piously 
added : " May God increase their wants." 

Let us now consider briefly the opposing force, and 
express our wonder at the temerity of the patriots in 
attempting for a moment to resist it. That army was 
composed mostly of regulars — men trained to arms. 
There were the Boston garrison, seasoned veterans 
from the West Indies, picked men from Gibraltar 
and other strongholds, Scotch who had won fame 
in a seven years' war, and Hessians whose trade it 
was to fight. And then the array of officers — Lieu- 
tenant-Generals Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis ; Ma- 
jor-Generals Matthews, Robertson, Pigot, Grant, 
Jones, Vaughn, and Agnew ; Brigadier-Generals Les- 
lie, Cleveland, Smith, and Erskine. There were 
twenty-seven regiments of the line, four battalions 
of light infantry, four of grenadiers, two of the 
king's guards, three brigades of artillery, a regiment 
of light dragoons, 23,000 officers and privates — 
with the 8,000 Hessians, forming an army of 31,000 
men. It was the best-officered, best-equipped army 
that King George, with the resources of Europe at 
command, could muster. 



3IO THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Lord Howe, the Commander-in-Chief, was a just 
and humane man, whose sympathies were with the 
Americans. He had been given power to offer free 
pardon to such of the rebels as would submit, and 
before launching his force against those whom he 
could but regard as Englishmen, he desired a con- 
ference with the leaders. Accordingly, on July I4l;h 
he despatched an officer in a barge with a letter to 
Washington. Tupper's alert whale boats, however, 
met the officer in the harbor, and detained him while 
they sent a message to head-quarters. In answer to 
it, Joseph Reed, Washington's adjutant-general, and 
Colonel Knox came down to treat with the officer. 
He received them politely, hat in hand. '' I have a 
letter," said he, " from Lord Howe to Mr. Washing- 
ton." '^ We have no person in our army with that 
address," returned Colonel Reed. " Will you not 
look at the address ? " persisted the officer. " No, 
sir," replied Reed. *' I cannot receive that letter." 
" I am sorry," said the envoy, and returned to the 
fleet. 

In thus declining to receive a letter not bearing his 
proper title, Washington was not moved by vanity 
or any question of etiquette : a grave principle was 
involved. The Americans now considered them- 
selves a free and independent people, entitled to all 
the rights of belligerents. If so, Washington was as 
truly a general as Howe. England, however, denied 
that the Americans were a nation. She contended 
that they were rebels, traitors, to her authority, lia- 
ble to trial and summary execution by court-martial 
whenever caught. For Howe to have addressed 



TPFO BATTLES. 3II 

Washington as '' General " would have been to ac- 
knowledge his claims. For Washington to consent 
to be addressed as plain " Mr." was to relinquish his 
claims to being considered a belligerent. In this lit- 
tle by-play before the grand drama both actors 
appear as skilled diplomatists, as well as soldiers. 
After much talking, it was later arranged that Colonel 
Patterson, Lord Howe's adjutant-general, should 
have a personal interview with the American chief. 
The colonel came in full dress, attended by his aides, 
to the Kennedy mansion, where Washington and 
his generals, also in full uniform, received him with 
stately courtesy. Colonel Patterson, in behalf of 
Lord Howe, apologized for the address on the for- 
mer letter, said no disrespect was meant, and pro- 
duced another with the inscription : " George 
Washington, Esq., etc., etc., etc.," which, as it im- 
plied every thing, he hoped would prove satisfactory. 
" True," replied Washington, " but it also implies 
any thing " ; and he added that he could not receive 
a letter addressed to him as a private person when it 
related to his public station. Colonel Patterson then 
tried to communicate orally the contents of the let- 
ter. The king desired to conciliate the colonists, 
and had given to Lord Howe and his brother, Ad- 
miral Howe, power to pardon past offences. To this 
Washington replied that *' the Americans, having 
done no wrong, wanted no pardons. They had but 
maintained their rights as Englishmen." The inter- 
view then terminated, nothing having been gained 
by it. 

His offers of pardon being rejected, Lord Howe 



312 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

decided to fight, and to attack by way of Long 
Island. At dawn on the morning of August 22d 
the frigates Rose and Greyhound, with the bomb 
ketches Thunder and Carcass, took position within 
Gravesend Bay to cover the landing. Then 15,000 
soldiers, fully equipped, entered the eighty-six flat- 
boats and batteauxthat had been provided, and were 
rowed in ten divisions to the Gravesend wharf, where 
they were landed without opposition, only a few 
Dutch farmers and the pickets of Hand's Virginia 
riflemen witnessing the affair. At this point, Howe 
was between six and seven miles from the American 
defences, although the skirmish line was three miles 
nearer. 

But before describing the army's movements, 
let us go over the ground it was to contest. 
Had you crossed Fulton Ferry in August, 1776, 
Brooklyn Heights would have risen before you in 
natural outline, uncrowned by buildings. There 
were a few farm-houses on the slopes and the two 
noble mansions of Robert and Philip Livingston 
on Columbia Heights, but neither city nor village. 
A road, called the King's Highway, started 
from the ferry, and following the present line 
of Fulton Street, passed through Jamaica and 
continued on to the eastern end of the island. 
A mile and a half out on this road a little hamlet 
had clustered round a quaint old Dutch church, 
standing in the middle of the street. There was an- 
other village at Bedford farther on, one at Gowanus, 
and another at the Wallabout. As you passed the 
line of the five forts and went on toward New 



TWO BATTLES 313 

Utrecht Plains, on which the British army now lay, 
you came, soon after leaving Bedford, to a ridge of 
hills extending from New York Bay eastward to 
Montauk Point through the centre of the island, and 
forming its backbone, so to speak. They were from 
one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high, 
often abrupt, and covered with the dense growth of 
scrub oak, pine, and bushy thickets, which still pre- 
vails farther east. Of course, no army could pass 
these hills. There were, however, four natural de- 
pressions or " passes " in the range, through which 
roads had been constructed — farthest north was the 
Jamaica Pass, through which the King's Highway 
ran on its way to Jamaica and the east ; then on the 
south a road from the King's Highway to Flatlands, 
one from Bedford to Flatbush ; and the coast road 
from Gowanus to the Narrows. These roads led 
to villages on the plain, — Flatlands, Flatbush, 
Gravesend, and New Utrecht. On the coast road, 
at a noted tavern called the Red Lion, Martense 
Lane, now the south line of Greenwood Cemetery, 
diverged to the southeast through a hollow in the 
hills and connected with the roads on the plain. 
Jamaica Pass was four miles from the American line, 
the Flatbush Pass a mile and a half, and the Red 
Lion tavern nearly three. General Sullivan held the 
hill passes, which Washington considered the key to 
the position, with about twenty-five hundred troops, 
while Putnam, as Commander-in-Chief in the absence 
of Washington, remained in the fortified camp. 
Washington was in New York watching the enemy, 
and on Long Island Putnam was the central figure. 



314 ^-^^ STORY OF NEW YORK, 

A rugged, striking figure he was, too, — one of the 
strongest characters of the Revolution. At this time 
in middle life, a veteran of the French and Indian 
wars, a good fighter, a stern disciplinarian, rough in 
manner, like Miles Standish much readier with the 
sword than the pen, as the letter opposite, probably 
written while the army was fortifying New York, 
shows. The apologists of Washington say — without 
sufificient proof — that it was by his advice that the 
battle of Loner Island was risked and lost. 

Howe's first movement was to send Cornwallis 
with the reserves to seize Flatbush, but not to at- 
tempt the pass if held by the enemy. It was held 
by the Virginia riflemen ; so he pushed on, and oc- 
cupied the village of Flatlands. The position of the 
Americans at this moment was as follows: 

Sullivan took post on a wooded hill near the 
centre ; Hand's riflemen watched the Hessians at 
Flatbush ; Miles held the Bedford Pass ; a detach- 
ment under Parsons took post at the Red Lion 
tavern on the lower road, while videttes were set to 
patrol the King's Highway, at the Jamaica Pass. 
The whole patriot force on the skirmish line did not 
exceed 2,500 men. Putnam, with the main body, 
lay within the fortified line, where it was thought he 
could at once push forward a force to any outpost if 
attacked. His entire army was scarcely a third of 
that of the enemy's. Howe lay four days before 
making an advance, studying his ground and await- 
ing re-enforcements. On the 25th he was joined by 
De Heister, with two brigades of Hessians, raising 
his force to 21,000 men, and on the evening of thq 



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LETTER OK OKNKRAL PUTNAM TO GKNERAL WASHINGTON-, I77(>- 



TIVO BATTLES. 315 

26th he began his advance, the Hessians and reserves 
under Cornwallis being massed at Flatbush, the 
main body, commanded by Clinton and Percy, at 
Flatlands, and Grant's two brigades near the Nar- 
rows. The British plan of battle was an admirable 
one. Grant, on the extreme left, was to engage the 
Americans at the Red Lion tavern as a feint merely, 
his orders being not to press the battle until he 
heard from the other columns on his right. De 
Heister was to attack at Flatbush Pass, while the 
main army would steal around to the extreme right, 
turn the American line by the unguarded Jamaica 
Pass, gain the hills, and double up the skirmish line 
on the main body. It was vitally necessary to the 
success of the plan that the advance of the flanking 
force should not be discovered. At nine o'clock, 
of the night of August 26th, it being quite dark, 
this column began its march '' across the country, 
through the new lots toward Jamaica Pass," as Lord 
Howe wrote in his report. 

At the front were three Flatbush Tories as guides ; 
then came Clinton with the light dragoons and a 
brigade of light infantry ; then Cornwallis and the 
reserve, with fourteen pieces of field artillery ; lastly. 
Lords How^e and Percy. The force toiled on in the 
darkness, along the road from Flatlands as far as 
Shoemaker's Creek, thence through the fields for a 
mile or two until they reached the Jamaica Road and 
came to a halt in the open lots in front of Howard's 
'' Half Way " tavern, a little southeast of the pass. 
Scouts sent forward reported the latter unguarded. 
Where, then, were the videttes set to guard it ? On 



3l6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

this particular night they comprised five young Amer- 
ican officers of undoubted bravery and patriotism 
who had volunteered for the dangerous work, — Lieu- 
tenants Van Wagener, who had charged with Mont- 
gomery at Quebec, Troup, Dunscomb, Gilliland, and 
Hoogland. Their orders were to patrol the pass. 
Had they obeyed orders, a patriot defeat might 
have been averted ; but they were young, ardent, 
burning for distinction, and so must needs go for- 
ward on the road in order sooner to discover the 
enemy's advance, never once considering that a foe 
might march across the fields and gain the road in 
their rear. Yet this was what happened ; the Brit- 
ish came into the road behind and quickly surprised 
and captured them. It was a greater prize than 
Lord Howe knew ; there were none now to carry 
the news of his advance to the patriot camp. The 
young men were at once hurried into the presence of 
General Clinton, who questioned them minutely as 
to the troops, the forts, and dispositions of the Amer- 
ican commander. But they sturdily refused to an- 
swer, claiming the privileges of prisoners of war. 
''Under other circumstances," said Dunscomb, "you 
would not dare insult us in this manner." Clinton, 
angry, called him an " impudent rebel," and threat- 
ened to hang him, — a threat which terrified the pris- 
oners but little ; " for," as Dunscomb significantly 
observed, '' Washington can hang man for man. " The 
column now marched through the pass and down 
the King's Road to Bedford, where it arrived at about 
half-past eight in the morning. It was in the rear 
of the American left, still undiscovered, and much 



TWO BATTLES. 317 

nearer Putnam's fortified camp than were his out- 
posts on the skirmish Hnes. A swift push forward 
and the British might break through the chain 
of forts and cut off the Americans from their New 
York supports. In their present position the British 
could not hope to remain long undiscovered. Miles, 
who had been marching back and forth all the 
morning in search of them, discovered them at last 
in full possession of the Jamaica Road, between him 
and the forts. The British promptly attacked him 
in the rear, while the Hessians pressed forward in 
front at Bedford Pass, and drove the troops there 
back upon Miles ; at the same time, cannonading in 
the direction of the Red Lion inn proved that Grant 
was on time, and had engaged and overlapped the 
American right. The patriots were in a trap. Fail- 
ure to guard the Jamaica Pass had undone them. 
They did the best thing possible under the circum- 
stances, — broke and fled into the wood, and made 
their way back to the American lines as best they 
could. Many were captured, and a few regained the 
forts. 

Meantime the honors of the day had been gained 
by Stirling, Parsons, and their sturdy troops of 
the Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania lines. 
At two o'clock that morning Grant's advance had 
driven in the American pickets at the Red Lion 
tavern. Word was quickly sent to Parsons, who 
commanded in that quarter, and to Putnam in the 
camp. . Parsons hurried down, and with a squad of 
twenty men, hastily collected, held the enemy in 
check for some time. Putnam, who had been ordered 



3l8 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

to hold the outposts at all hazards, at once sent Lord 
Stirling with a force of i,6oo men to check the en- 
emy's advance. Stirling found the latter moving 
down the road nearly half a mile this side the Red 
Lion on their way to the forts ; directly before them 
was a bridge over a little creek, and on the Brook- 
lyn side rose a small hill known as Blockyesbergh. 
Stirling seized on the creek and hill as his line of 
resistance. 

The British line of battle was formed on the oppo- 
site bank, and as on the right it overlapped the 
American, Parsons was sent to take possession of a 
small hill, which would extend the patriot line on 
the left some three hundred yards. The British first 
gained this hill, and Parsons made a gallant assault 
before he could carry it, but at last it was his. The 
two armies now confronted each other for two hours, 
it being contrary to orders for Grant to force a battle 
until he heard the guns of the flanking column. Stir- 
ling's men were i,6oo strong, the enemy 7,000, and 
their bravery in facing in open field an enemy so 
much superior is worthy of remembrance. Mean- 
time a brisk artillery fire was kept up, and very soon 
Parsons, on his hill — ^now the beautiful Battle Hill of 
Greenwood Cemetery, — was attacked by the enemy, 
whom, however, he again repulsed. 

At ten Grant heard firing at the passes and knew 
that Howe was in the American rear. He at once 
began pushing Stirling harder, but the Americans 
held their ground heroically. Eleven o'clock — half 
past eleven came, and still no orders to retreat, 
although Stirling knew from the firing that the 



TI'VO BATTLES. 3I9 

enemy were gaining his rear. At last, about noon, 
he attempted a retreat. It was too late ; he was 
surrounded. Cornwallis, with the 71st Regiment 
and the Grenadiers, was on the Gowanus Road. 
Looking about to see how he might save his brave 
fellows, Stirling saw on his left Gowanus Creek and 
a marsh that was deemed impassable Across on the 
opposite shore were the American redoubts and 
safety. He ordered his men to break ranks and 
cross the marsh as best they could, while he, with 
Gist's and half the Maryland battalion, should hold 
Cornwallis in check, thus giving them time to escape. 
This plan was carried out. Most of the men escaped 
across the marsh, whereupon Stirling, seeing they 
were beyond danger, and finding that his Spartan 
band was being borne back into a thick wood, gave 
his men orders to disperse and save themselves. 
Nine men under Major Gist succeeded in crossing 
the creek and escaping ; but most of them, with the 
brave Stirling himself, were made prisoners. The 
greater part of Parsons' brave fellows on Battle Hill 
were also taken, though the General with quite a 
number succeeded in hiding himself in a swamp and 
thence gained the American lines. 

Just as Stirling made his bold stand, Washington 
reached the forts. Smallwood, who had gained the 
lines with the Marylanders, begged to go to his 
assistance, but Washington said the risk was too 
great. He, however, despatched Douglas' Connecti- 
cut levies and Thomas' Marylanders, with two guns, 
to a point opposite the mouth of Gowanus Creek, to 
check the enemy's advance. 



320 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Thus ended the battle. The Americans were 
defeated. The British were close upon their line 
of forts. Only this thing had been gained. The 
patriots, as in the case of Stirling's men, had 
proven that they could meet the British veteran 
in open line of battle and defeat him in fair fight. 
Washington ordered over additional troops from 
New York and Harlem, but could not conceal 
the fact that his army was in bad plight. If the 
enemy should assault and carry his redoubts, or if 
the British frigates should sail up and command the 
ferry in his rear, the capture of his entire force was 
certain. On the 29th he called a council of his 
generals to consult on the advisability of retreating 
to New York. Several reasons were given for the 
step. The loss in officers and men in the defeat of 
the 27th had occasioned confusion. The men were 
tired out with constant watching and alarms ; their 
arms and ammunition had been rendered nearly use- 
less by the rain of the last two days. The enemy 
was trying to get his ships into the East River. 
Lastly, Howe was advancing by trenches parallel 
with the American works, and an assault might soon 
be expected. It was decided, after long discussion, 
to retire to New York. 

" To conduct a skilful retreat," some one has 
said, " is equal to winning a great victory." 
Washington conducted this retreat in the most 
masterly manner, and in part atoned for his bad 
generalship in trying to defend the city. As soon 
as it was resolved to retreat he sent Colonel Trum- 
bull to Assistant Quartermaster Hughes in New 



TWO BATTLES. 32 1 

York, with orders to at once impress every kind of 
craft, from Hell Gate to Spuyten Duyvil Creek, that 
could be kept afloat, and have them all in the " east 
harbor " by dark. Trumbull was also ordered to 
send a messenger to General Heath, commanding at 
Kingsbridge, to impress all the boats in his district, 
and to man them with the Salem and Marblehead 
fishermen of his command. The boats were required, 
it was said, to ferry over some New Jersey troops, 
who were to take the place of others relieved. 

In his general orders to the army, Washington 
enployed the same fiction, — a retreat was not men- 
tioned, — they were to be relieved by fresh New 
Jersey militia. Every regiment was ordered to be 
ready to march at dark, knapsack on back, and arms 
and camp equipage in hand. It was a busy day for 
General Heath and Colonel Hughes. The. entire 
water-line of Manhattan Island was scoured, and, by 
sunset, every craft that would float was impressed 
and moored at the Fulton Ferry dock. It was an 
odd fleet — sloops, sail-boats, galleys, periaugers, 
flat-boats, row-boats, whale-boats, — manned by the 
hardy Salem and Marblehead fishermen. At dark 
the army was ready, each regiment being drawn up 
on its parade. First, Hitchcock's Rhode Islanders 
marched to the ferry, '' through mud and mire, 
and not a ray of light visible," their place being 
at once supplied by another brigade ; and so the 
retreat went on, the place of each regiment, as it 
moved, being noiselessly taken by its fellow. Out 
on the redoubts the camp-fires blazed brightly, and 
the sentinels called the hours within hearing of the 



322 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

British pickets. Six regiments, under General Mif- 
flin, held these redoubts. At two in the morning, a 
nearly fatal blunder occurred. An aide, by mistake, 
brought an order for Mifflin's command to march to 
the ferry, which was still crowded with the retreating 
army. On the road, however, the mistake was dis- 
covered, and the men gallantly returned to the de- 
serted earthworks. As day broke in the east, the 
main army and its hnpedijnenta was on the New 
York side. Mifflin's force still held the forts. How 
should they be drawn oiT undetected ? The question 
was answered as if by a special Providence. Ranks 
of heavy fog-clouds rolled up from the bay, and drew 
around the frowning heights an impervious curtain. 
Mifflin was safe. As the last outpost retired it heard 
distinctly the sound of shovel and pickaxe in the 
British trenches. Before 7 A.M., the entire force was 
over the river. '' Washington," said Colonel Cham- 
berlain, '' saw the last man over himself." He had 
been for nearly forty-eight hours in the saddle. 
When Howe awoke that morning, he found that an 
army of nine thousand men, with stores, baggage, 
and artillery, had been spirited away from under his 
guns while his army slept. 

The 30th and 31st of August, 1776, were gloomy 
days in New York. Tents, clothes, baggage, all man- 
ner of camp equipage, soaked with rain, encumbered 
the streets and sidewalks. Squads of soldiers moved 
wearily and dispiritedly about, or lingered on the 
corners. The inhabitants who were unable to flee 
kept within doors. In a few days, however, the 
army was reorganized, and order and confidence were 



TWO BATTLES. 323 

restored. The burning question then was, whether 
to attempt to hold the city against all odds, or to 
burn it, and retreat to the fastnesses of the Hudson. 
The matter was debated for several days by Congress 
(to whom it was referred), and by the generals. At 
length, Congress gave Washington sole discretion in 
the matter. On September 12th, he called a council 
at his head-quarters in the Richmond Hill House, 
and there it was decided to evacuate the city — with- 
out burning it, however, as Congress thought it 
might be recovered. It was time to retreat ; already 
the British had seized the islands in the Harlem 
River, with the evident design of capturing Harlem 
Heights, which commanded the city on the north. 

On September 3d, the frigate Rose of thirty-two 
guns had sailed by the batteries and up the East 
River conveying thirty boats which were to be used 
in the crossing. On the 12th thirty-six more boats 
passed up, and on the 14th the frigates Roebuck, 
Phoenix, Orpheus, and Carysfort, with six transports, 
joined the Rose. On this day all the teams and 
transports of the Americans had been employed in 
removing to Kingsbridge the sick, wounded, and 
stores. Another day and the work would have been 
done. Unfortunately it had been begun a day too 
late, for next morning the British moved upon the 
city, and in the afternoon it fell. The cove that 
now sets in from the East River at the foot of East 
Thirty-fourth Street was then known as Kip's Bay. 
There were several earthworks there, and around 
and below it five American brigades were distributed 
to watch the enemy. Sullivan's division garrisoned 



324 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the city. Parsons' was at Corlear's Hook below 
Kip's Bay. Scott's New York brigade was on the 
Stuyvesant estate near the present Fifteenth Street. 
Wadsworth, with the Connecticut levies was at 
Twenty-third Street, Douglas with three Connec- 
ticut militia regiments at Kip's Bay. Putnam's 
division was also in the city guarding the forts and 
barricades. Washington on the eve of the 14th had 
left New York and had fixed his head-quarters at the 
Apthorpe mansion on the Bloom ingdale Road, which 
one may still see, a quaint reminder of old days, at 
the corner of Ninth Avenue and Ninety-first Street. 
Such was the situation on Sunday morning, Sep- 
tember 15th. A little after daybreak Douglas, at 
Kip's Bay, saw the five frigates make sail and slowly 
move up abreast of his position. '' They were so near," 
said a soldier, " that I could distinctly read the name 
of the PJiaiiix which la}' a little quartering." But the 
militia soon had other objects to look at, for presently 
from the mouth of Newtown Creek, nearly opposite, 
emerged a flotilla of eighty-four row galleys filled 
with grenadiers in scarlet uniforms, looking, as the 
soldier above quoted aptly said, ** like a large clover- 
field in full bloom." Slowh' the boats came on ; as 
they neared the shore, all at once with a thundering 
sound the seventy-five guns of the frigates belched 
a storm of grape-shot on the devoted patriots. " It 
came like a peal of thunder," says Martin. Sharp- 
shooters stationed in the frigate's tops picked off 
every man that showed himself. One soldier thought 
" his head would go with the sound," " but," he added, 
'' we kept the lines until they were almost levelled 



TIVO BATTLES. 325 

upon us, when the officers seeing we were exposed to 
the rake of their guns, gave the order to leave." At 
the same moment, a Httle to the left, under cover of 
the cannon smoke, the flotilla was beached, and the 
troops threw themselves ashore without opposition. 
The Americans all along the river front now began 
a retreat, which soon ended in a panic-stricken flight 
with the British in hot pursuit. Up the Post Road fled 
the militia — every man for himself — Parsons, Doug- 
las, Prescott, and Huntington in vain trying to rally 
and reform them. At the corner of Fourth Avenue 
and Thirty-sixth Street, with grounds extending 
through to the Kingsbridge Road Twhich then ran 
on the present line of Lexington Avenue), stood the 
handsome mansion of Robert Murray, a wealthy 
Quaker merchant of New York. Just above, cover- 
ing the present line of Forty-second and Forty-third 
streets, a wide lane crossed the island and connected 
with the Bloomingdale Road. On the south side of 
this lane, where it joined the Post Road, was a large 
cornfield. Washington, at the Apthorpe house, 
on hearing the firing, leaped to saddle, spurred down 
the Bloomingdale Road and across by the connecting 
lane toward the Kingsbridge Road. He had just 
reached this cornfield as the mob of frightened fugi- 
tives came hurrying on, some taking the fields in 
their haste, some toiling and panting along the road. 
Parsons' and Fellows' brigades, which had been or- 
dered up to check the rout, also came up at this 
moment. Washington ordered them to form and 
make a stand along the line of the Post Road. 
*' Take the walls ; take the cornfield," he shouted. 



326 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

The men ran to the walls, but the vanguard of the 
enemy just then appearing over the crest of the hill 
they broke and fled in a panic equal to that of the 
militia. Washington, Putnam, Parsons, and other 
officers dashed in among them, endeavoring to rally 
them, but in vain. The senseless panic that some- 
times seizes even brave men in battle was upon them, 
and as the lines of gleaming bayonets appeared they 
broke and fled. 

Washington at the sight is said to have lost the 
self-control habitual with him. He dashed in among 
the confused mass swinging his hat and shouting to 
them to re-form and make a stand against the enemy; 
his officers ably seconded him — in vain, however. 
''The very demons of fear and disorder," said a 
soldier, " seemed to take full possession of them all 
and of every thing on that day." Seeing that the 
field was lost, the Commander-in-Chief ordered the 
retreat continued to Harlem Heights, while he 
spurred away to make dispositions for defence there. 

Meantime what of the soldiers left in the city ? 
At the first note of attack Putnam's division had 
been put in motion toward Harlem, taking the 
Bloomingdale Road, which, as has been mentioned, 
ran along the west side of the island ; but the col- 
umn was forced to move slowly ; it was hampered 
with refugee women and children, by stores, cannon, 
camp inlpedimenta ; besides, stretching along the 
country road for two miles, it was very unwieldy, 
and the sun was intensely hot. To cover its retreat, 
Silliman with his brigade, and Knox with his artillery 
took post at Bayard's Hill Fort, which we have de- 



TWO BATTLES. 327 

scribed as standing on the bluff north of Canal Street, 
and as being one of the strongest of the city's de- 
fences. This was perhaps two hours before the rout 
began at Murray's cornfield. On leaving the retreat- 
ing force there, Putnam spurred down to look after 
the fortunes of his column, first detaching his aide. 
Major Aaron Burr, with a company of dragoons, to 
bring off Silliman's and Knox's force at Bayard's 
Hill — a congenial task for Major Burr, who had al- 
ready distinguished himself by his gallantry. Soon 
he dashed up to the redoubt and inquired who com- 
manded there. General Knox appeared, and Burr 
delivered his orders, imploring him to retreat at once, 
as a column of Hessians was then advancing down 
the Post Road upon the city, and the fort would 
inevitably be taken. Knox replied that they would 
be cut off in any event, and that he preferred to de- 
fend the fort. " But," urged the intrepid aide, " it 
is not bomb proof ; you have no water ; I would en- 
gage to take it with a single howitzer." And turn- 
ing to the men, he told them that if they remained 
-there, one half of them would surely be shot before 
night, and the rest hung like dogs ; " whereas," said 
he, " if you will put yourselves under my guidance, 
I can and will lead you in safety to Harlem." The 
brigade decided to retreat. Burr led it at once to 
the main column, then put himself at the head of 
all, and by lanes and by-ways, through thicket and 
forest, led it past the British advance to Harlem, 
while Captain Alexander Hamilton's battery served 
as rear-guard, and gallantly beat back, on more than 
one occasion, a squadron of the pursuing enemy. 



328 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

The credit for this happy escape was accorded 
Major Burr, and gave him great prestige in the 
army. Had Howe pushed forward his troops, how- 
ever, he might easily have cut off the column. At 
the fine old mansion of the Murrays, within half a 
mile of the road by which the patriots were escaping, 
his main army was encamped at the time, and he, 
with Tryon, Clinton, Cornwallis, and others, was sip- 
ping Mrs. Murray's rare old Madeira, while his troops 
prepared and ate the mid-day meal. But perhaps, as 
was later charged. General Howe had no desire to 
capture the mass of fugitives. 

The army was now out of the city. The battle 
scene was transferred to Harlem Heights. If one 
stands upon the high bluff where 1 19th Street crosses 
Morningside Park, a few squares north of the Leake 
and Watts Orphan House, — the site of the proposed 
grand cathedral, — he can take in the battle-field at a 
glance. At his feet Harlem Plains, well built over, 
stretches away to the east. Directly north, across 
the valley, at about 125th Street, rises a bold pro- 
montory, known in 1776 as Point of Rocks, and 
which sweeps away northwest in a series of rocky 
points and ledges, three quarters of a mile to the 
Hudson. On these heights Washington's army 
was massed on its retreat from the city, the head- 
quarters of the general being fixed at the Morris 
House, now the Jumel mansion, which one may still 
see on the rocky height southwest of High Bridge — 
a fine example in decay of old colonial architecture. 

The British were directly opposite on Blooming- 
dale Heights — where we are supposed to stand, — 




o 

I— I 

en 

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o 
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330 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

with their pickets stretched across the upper part of 
Central Park to Horn Hook on the east, and across 
Riverside Park to the Hudson on the west. The 
low land between, showing here and there a farm, 
but mostly covered with forest, with the crag on 
which we stand, was the scene of the battle of Har- 
lem Heights. It was the object of the British to 
capture the heights and thus force the Americans 
off the island. The latter, however, assumed the ag- 
gressive, and brought on the battle. From Point of 
Rocks Washington with his field-glass could sweep 
the Harlem Plains, and easily see what the enemy 
was doing in that quarter. Not so with the forest 
and broken land along the Hudson. At daylight, 
therefore, on the morning of the i6th, he despatched 
Colonel Thomas Knowlton, one of his bravest of- 
ficers, with a force of one hundred and twenty picked 
men, to make a reconnoissance in that direction, and 
unearth the enemy — if possible capture his advanced 
guard. This guard comprised two battalions of the 
light infantry supported by the 42d Highlanders, 
and was pushed forward nearly to the southern 
limits of the present Morningside Park. Knowlton 
led his men down the ravine now marked by Man- 
hattan Street, to the river bank, and then south 
under cover of the bluffs and forest until he came 
upon the enemy, when a sharp skirmish occurred ; 
but after firing several rounds Knowlton, finding 
that the British were pushing north in such a way 
as to outflank him, began a leisurely retreat. Mean- 
time the enemy had appeared on Harlem Plain, and 
Washington hurried to the Point of Rocks to direct 



TIVO BATTLES. 33 I 

the movement of troops. Hearing Knowlton's fir- 
ing to the south he sent Adjutant-General Reed in 
that direction to see what it meant. Reed soon re- 
turned and reported that Knowlton was being pur- 
sued by some three hundred of the enemy, whom he 
was drawing away from their supports and into the 
patriot hnes. Washington then sent forward rein- 
forcements, and the British were driven ingloriously 
back to their main line. It was a small affair, but it 
restored to the Americans that esprit du corps which 
had been banished by the retreat of the preceding 
day. 

The second or main battle began about ten 
o'clock, and lasted till two in the afternoon. Knowl- 
ton's men on meeting ihe enemy had recoiled, and 
made an orderly retreat before a superior force. At 
ten o clock, as Washington sat on his horse awaiting 
reports from scouts, Knowlton hurried up and begged 
for reinforcements to capture his pursuers. At the 
same moment a body of troopers appeared in the plain 
below, and blew their bugles in the face of the 
Americans, as if at a fox-funt. Washington accepted 
the challenge. He ordered Major Leitch with his 
Virginia Riflemen to join the Connecticut Rangers 
under Knowlton, and gain the rear of the foe by 
their right flank, while another detachment engaged 
them in front. The British, seeing so few enemies 
before them, pushed down into the valley under the 
Point of Rocks to engage them. The rattling vol- 
leys hurried up the British reserve corps in support ; 
at the same time the riflemen and rangers, by some 
misunderstanding, struck the right flank of the 



332 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

enemy instead of the rear as had been intended. 
At this the British leaders became alarmed, and 
ordered up their choicest regiments. Washington 
responded with detachments of Douglas', Nixon's, 
Richardson's, and Griffith's regiments, the very 
troops which had so ingloriously fled the day before, 
and the battle in the plain became general. Mean- 
time the column under Knowlton and Leitch had 
attacked with so much spirit that the enemy gave 
way and was rolled in on Bloomingdale Heights, 
hotly pursued by the patriots. In the plain, too, 
the battle had gone against the British, and they 
also fell back upon the heights, where the combined 
force made a stubborn stand. 

Just here, between Morningside Drive and Ninth 
Avenue, a little south of the line of 119th Street, 
Knowlton and Leitch both fell at the head of their 
troops. An officer stooped over Knowlton as he fell. 
" Are you badly hurt ? " he asked. "Yes," replied 
the dying patriot ; but I value not my life so we win 
the day." When Morningside Park is laid out, the 
city would do well to commemorate by a suitable 
statue the place where these heroes fell. But, though 
the leaders had fallen, the battle still raged. At last 
the British were driven from the hill-top as they had 
been from the valley. About noon, receiving fresh 
succors, they made a stand in a buckwheat field and 
held their ground for nearly two hours, but were 
finally routed and chased for two miles, the Amer- 
icans mocking their bugles as they pursued. 

Thus in victory for the American arms ended the 
battle of Harlem Heights. It was not a great battle — 



TWO BATTLES. 333 

there were in all barely ten thousand men engaged, 
— but it was an important one, chiefly because it 
restored to the patriots that confidence in them- 
selves which had been lost by the inglorious retreat 
from New York. Washington remained on the 
heights for three weeks, confronting his foe, and then 
removed his army to the highlands of the Hudson 
in the upper part of Westchester County. 




XVL 



NEW YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 



Meantime the city was in the grasp of the in- 
vaders. When Howe took possession, September 
i6th, it bore much the appearance of a dismantled 
town. Houses and stores were closed, bells removed 
from churches and public buildings, brass knockers 
from houses, every thing portable and of value the 
flying people had taken with them. On Saturday, 
the 2Tst, at midnight, a fire broke out in a low grog- 
gery near Whitehall Street, in the southeastern part 
of the town, and fanned by a strong south wind, 
swept like a prairie fire through the city. It ran up 
Whitehall to Broadway, and up the east side of that 
thoroughfare to Beaver, where with a change of 
wind it leaped the street and sped on up the west 
side, sweeping every thing clean to the North River. 
Trinity Church, with its rectory and charity school, 
and the Lutheran Church, were soon blackened heaps 
of ruins. St. Paul's was saved only by the desperate 
efforts of citizens, who climbed out upon its flat 
roof and quenched live embers as they fell. The 
flames were only checked by the open grounds and 
stone buildings of King's College. *' This fire was 
so furious and so violently hot that no person could 

334 




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336 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

go near it," wrote an eye-witness. *' If one was in 
one street and looked about, the fire broke out al- 
ready in another street above, and thus it raged all 
the night, and till about noon," wrote the Rev. Mr. 
Shewkirk, pastor of the Fulton Street Moravian 
Church. Four hundred and ninety-three houses, 
(some accounts say 1,000) and several churches were 
destroyed. The British jumped to the conclusion 
that the Americans were burning the town to pre- 
vent its serving them as winter quarters, and they 
bayoneted several worthy citizens who were putting 
out the fire, and threw others into the flames, under 
the impression that they were the incendiaries. The 
patriot leaders indignantly repelled the charge. 
'' By what means it happened, we do not know," 
wrote Washington to Governor Trumbull the day 
after the fire, September 23d, and Colonel Reed 
wrote to his wife the same day: "There was a re- 
solve in Congress against our injuring it, so that we 
neither set it on fire, nor made any preparations for 
the purpose ; though I make no doubt it will be 
charged to us," — as it was by Lord Howe in his ofificial 
despatches. This fire incensed the British, and many 
outrages were committed on the helpless patriots. 
Among other things, the library and apparatus of 
King's College, which had been stored in the City 
Hall, were stolen, and publicly hawked about the 
streets, or bartered in liquor saloons for a dram. 
Following close upon the fire came one of the sad- 
dest and most tragical incidents in the city's history 
— the execution of Captain Nathan Hale as a spy. 
This young ofificer, barely twenty-one, a graduate of 



NEW YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 337 

Yale, and betrothed to a beautiful girl, had volun- 
teered to penetrate the British lines around New 
York, and gain intelligence of Howe's numbers and 
position. He went to Fairfield, Connecticut, and, 
making use of Captain Brewster's whale-boat service, 
crossed the Sound to Huntington, on the Long Island 
shore, whence, disguised as a schoolmaster, he easily 
succeeded in entering the British lines. He succeeded, 
too, in collecting the information desired, and re- 
turned to Huntington Bay, where it had been ar- 
ranged that a whale-boat should meet him and 
return with him to the Connecticut shore. A boat 
was in waiting near the shore, and Captain Hale 
approached it confidently, only to find that it was a 
yawl from a British frigate lying near. There was 
no escape ; he submitted to his captors, and was 
sent to New York as a ''a prisoner taken within the 
lines " — that is, as a spy. There was short shrift 
for a rebel and a spy in the first year of the war. 
Howe called a court-martial next day at his head- 
quarters in the fine old Beekman mansion to try 
him. The prisoner waived a trial, however, and 
boldly avowed himself a spy in the service of Gen- 
eral Washington ; and the board at once condemned 
him to be hung the next day, which was Sunday. 
Until that time the prisoner was given in charge of 
the brutal Provost-Marshal Cunningham, and prob- 
ably confined in the new Gaol, of which we shall say 
more presently. He asked for pen and paper that he 
might write a last letter to his mother, but this was 
denied ; for a Bible, but the request was refused. 
An English ofificer, however, is said to have inter- 



338 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

posed, and to have furnished him with the articles 
desired. 

Hale's conduct in the hour of death illustrates in 
a striking way the spirit of the times. The scene of 
execution was the Rutgers orchard, a site now cov- 
ered by the blocks of huge buildings on East Broad- 
way, a little above Franklin Square. As he stood 
upon a cart under the apple boughs a British officer, 
one of a group standing near, said, tauntingly: 
"This is a fine death for a soldier." "Sir," replied 
Hale, " there is no death which would not be ren- 
dered noble in such a glorious cause." His last 
words form one of the noblest sentiments of hu- 
manity, a heritage of the race. Andre, in a similar 
situation four years later, uttered the sentiments of 
a soldier, but Hale's last words breathed only the 
loftiest patriotism. " I only regret," said he, " that 
I have but one life to lose for my country." 

For seven years, or until the return of peace, in 
1783, New York remained a captured city ; martial 
law prevailed ; the city was made a depot for stores, 
a rendezvous for troops, the hospital of the British 
army, and the prison-house of those Americans un- 
fortunate enough to be taken in arms. When the 
battles attending the capture of the city were over, 
it is safe to assume that Sir William Howe had, at 
least, 5,000 prisoners to provide for. To contain so 
large a number the ordinary prisons were, of course, 
inadequate, and other places were sought. The 
Brick Church, the Middle Dutch, the North Dutch, 
and the French churches, all fine, handsome struc- 
tures, were despoiled of their fittings, and appro- 



NEW YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 



339 



priated to this use. Besides these, King's College, 
the Sugar House, the new Gaol, the Bridewell, and 
the old City Hall, were filled with prisoners, and to 
this array were added, later, the prison ships of the 
East River. 

The sufferings of the poor prisoners through the 
brutality of Captain Cunningham, Howe's provost- 
marshal, were terrible, and, more than the musket 
and the sword, depleted the ranks of the patriots. 




«NBtU.tX- 



OLD SUGAR-HOUSE PRISON. 

They who entered the British prisons, like Dante's 
pilgrims to the Inferno, left hope behind. 

In Liberty Street, south of the Middle Dutch 
Church, stood until forty years back, a dark stone 
building five stories high, with small, deep windows 
rising tier above tier like portholes in a hulk. Each 
floor of this building was divided into two bare, 
dungeon-like apartments, on the walls of which later 
visitors were fond of tracing the carved names and 



340 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

dates that had been cut by the knives of the prison- 
ers nearly a century before. This was the old sugar 
house of the Livingstons. A strong gaol4ike door 
opened on to Liberty Street, and another on the 
southeast gave entrance to a dismal cellar. While 
occupied by the prisoners two English or Hessian 
sentinels were constantly on guard, lest some des- 
perate captive should attempt to escape. *' In the 
suffocating heat of summer," said William Dunlap, 
" I saw every narrow aperture of those stone walls 
filled with human heads, face above face, seeking a 
portion of the external air." "" Seats, there were 
none," says another narrator, " and their beds were 
but straw intermixed with vermin. For many weeks 
the dead cart visited the prison every morning, into 
which eight to twelve corpses were flung, and piled 
up like sticks of wood, and dumped into ditches in 
the outskirts of the city." 

Worse than this were the prison ships, which 
were at first intended for prisoners taken on the 
high seas, but later accommodated landsmen as 
well. The most important were the Jersey, Whitby^ 
Good Hope, Prince of Wales, FalmoutJi, Scorpion, 
Strombolo, and Himter. The Jersey, from the great 
numbers confined in her, and the fearful mortality 
among them, had a more ominous fame. It was 
confidently asserted that no less than 10,644 pris- 
oners perished in her during the war, and were bur- 
ied on the neighboring shore. These fever-infested 
old hulks were moored in the East River — most 
of them in the sheltered little bay known as the 
Wallabout. When a prisoner was brought on board, 



NEW YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 34 1 

his name and rank were registered, his weapons and 
money, if he had any, were taken, and he was ordered 
below into the hold, where he found a thousand 
wretched beings racked with disease and emaciated 
with hunger. He at once joined a " mess " of six 
persons, and every morning at the ringing of the 
steward's bell, formed in line, and received his daily 
ration of biscuit, peas, and beef, or pork. Some- 
times oat meal, flour, suet, and butter were added to 
the bill of fare, but the poor prisoners never saw vege- 
tables. " The peas," we are told, " were damaged, 
the butter rancid, the biscuit mouldy, and often full 
of worms, the flour sour, the beef and pork unsa- 
vory. Not so much the fault of the king, as of his 
rapacious commissaries, who exchanged good pro- 
visions for bad, and by curtailing rations and other 
expedients, heaped up large fortunes at the expense 
of the prisoners." 

Every morning the poor fellows brought up their 
beds to be aired, washed down the floors, and spent 
the day on deck. At sunset the guards cried '* Down, 
rebels, down ! " the hatches were fastened over them, 
and in the stifling fever-infected atmosphere the pris- 
oners lay in rows to sleep. When a man died his fel- 
lows sewed his body in his blanket, lowered it into a 
boat, and accompanied by a guard, rowed ashore, and 
buried it in a shallow trench in the bank or on the 
shore. Not unfrequently the prisoners escaped, de- 
spite the vigilance of the sentinels. One night, in 
1779, for instance, on the Good Hope, nine sea cap- 
tains and two pirates overpowered the guard, and 
got away in one of the ship's boats ; and in the se- 



342 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

vere winter of 1780, fifteen prisoners escaped on the 
ice that bridged the East River. 

The officers and more distinguished civiHans were 
confined in the new Gaol in City Hall Park, now the 
Hall of Records. In this prison were also the head- 
quarters of Captain Cunningham, the provost-mar- 
shal of the city, who, by all accounts, was a most 
cruel and heartless villain. The officers seem to 
have been treated no better than were the privates. 
A creditable witness, Mr. John Pintard, clerk of Elias 
Boudinot, the commissioner appointed by Congress 
for securing the exchange of prisoners, speaks thus 
of it : 

" An admission into this modern bastile was enough to 
appal the stoutest heart. On the right hand of the main 
door was Captain Cunningham's quarters, opposite to 
which was the guard-room. Within the first barricade 
was Sergeant O'Keefe's apartment. At the entrance- 
door two sentinels were posted day and night ; two more 
at the first and second barricades, which were grated, 
barred, and chained ; also at the rear door and on the 
platform of the grated door : and at the foot of the second 
flight of stairs leading to the rooms and cells in the 
second and third stories. When a prisoner, escorted by 
soldiers, was led into the hall the whole guard was pa- 
raded, and he was delivered over with all formality to 
Captain Cunningham or his deputy, and questioned as to 
his name, rank, size, age, etc., all of which were entered 
in a record book. What with the bristling of arms, un- 
bolting of bars and locks, clanking of enormous iron 
chains, and a vestibule as dark as Erebus, the unfortu- 
nate captive might well shrink under this infernal sight 



I 



NEIV YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 343 

and parade of tyrannical power as he crossed the thresh- 
old of that door which possibly closed on him for life. 
The northeast chamber, turning to the left on the second 
floor, was appropriated to officers and characters of 
superior rank, and was called Congress Hall. So closely 
were the prisoners packed that when they laid down at 
night to rest, when their bones ached on the hard oak 
planks and they wished to turn, it was altogether by word 
of command 'right; 'left; being so wedged in as to 
form almost a solid mass of human bodies." 



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AUTOGRAPH PERMIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



344 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

It is well to recount these sufferings — the price of 
liberty — to the boys of to-day, that they may value 
their birthright accordingly. 

New York was not a pleasant place of residence 
during these seven years. Martial law, with its 
rigors, bore heavily upon the people. They were in 
constant fear, too, of an attack from the Americans. 
Then the burned district, added to by another great 
fire in August, 1778, was covered with a city of tents 
and cabins that sheltered the vilest banditti of the 
British enemy, so that no citizen felt himself safe in 
the streets after dark, while the presence of the hos- 
pitals and prison-houses harrowed the souls of the 
pitiful. Business was suspended ; many were in 
want. No one could leave without a pass from Lord 
Howe or his subordinates. No one could enter from 
within the American lines without a permit from 
General Washington, like that shown in the illustra- 
tion. Only the wealthier royalists were sad when, 
on the 25th of November, 1783, the rear-guard of the 
British army embarked at the Battery, and with crest- 
fallen air rowed away to their ships. At the same 
hour there marched down from the Bowery the army 
of occupation. This column was composed of the 
picked men of the army, heroes of a score of bloody 
fields ; in the van Captain Stokes' troop of dragoons, 
next an advance guard of light infantry, then, in 
order, artillery, a battalion of light infantry, the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts Regiment, and a rear-guard, the 
whole under the command of Major-General Knox. 
The line of march was down the Bowery to 
Chatham, through Chatham to Queen (now Pearl), 



NEW YORK IN CAPTIVITY. 345 

then the principal thoroughfare ; through Queen to 
Wall, and up Wall to Broadway, where, opposite 
Cape's tavern, at Rector Street, the column halted 
to receive the civic procession soon to follow. At 
the same moment, a company of light infantry and 
one of artillery were detailed to proceed to Fort 
George, hoist the American colors on its flag-staff, 
and fire a salute of thirteen guns. The men hurried 
away, gained the parapet, and, looking on the bay, 
saw it covered with the boats of the British and 
Hessians, eit route to their ships. But they soon 
found that the latter had played them a most un- 
manly trick — the flag-staff had been greased, and the 
halyards cut, so that it was impossible to hoist their 
colors. A sailor-boy volunteered to climb the pole, 
but, after several attempts, was obliged to desist. 
What was to be done ? The flag must be raised be- 
fore the salute could be fired, and there were the 
red-coats on the bay laughing at their plight. A 
happy thought struck the sailor-boy. He called for 
hammer, nails, a saw, and boards. The latter he cut 
up into cleats, nailed on the staff above him as 
he ascended, and so reached the top, where halyards 
were quickly reeved, and the colors hoisted. 

Meantime, in the city, a larger, more imposing pro- 
cession had been following the route of the military. 
It started from the Bull's Head tavern, on the present 
site of the Thalia Theatre, Captain Delavan's West- 
chester Light Horse in advance ; General Washing- 
ton and George Clinton, Governor of New York, 
with their suites on horseback; the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor and members of the City Council, pro tem^ 



346 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

four abreast ; Knox, Steuben, James Clinton, Mc- 
Dougall, and other general officers, eight abreast ; 
citizens on horseback, eight abreast ; and lastly, the 
Speaker of the Assembly, and citizens on foot. The 
greatest enthusiasm greeted this body, and, when it 
halted before Cape's tavern, the military presented 
arms, the drums beat, and Fort George thundered a 
salute. Addresses were then made to General and 
Governor by prominent citizens, and in the evening 
a grand dinner was given by the Governor at 
Fraunces' tavern, at which a distinguished company 
gathered. Governor Clinton chose for his residence 
the De Peyster mansion, on Queen Street near 
Cedar, and the government of the new State of New 
York went into operation without friction. Two 
months later the Governor's council appointed 
James Duane the first mayor, and the city govern- 
ment was complete. Thus New York came under 
the folds of the last flag that was to wave over her. 

An army other than that in scarlet uniform fol- 
lowed the retreating British to their ships — the 
American loyalists, who, having adhered to the 
crown, had now no part in the new country, and 
whom the bitter resentment of the Whigs, if not 
their own pride, would have forced into exile. Ac- 
cording to British official reports, dated November 
24, 1783, 29,244 men, women, and children had, up 
to that date, been furnished transportation to Cana- 
da. Not all were loyalists, however ; there were 
soldiers with their families among them, and 3,000 
negro slaves which were taken by their masters. 

One other scene in the great drama of the Revo- 



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348 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

lution remained to be enacted before the curtain 
could be rung down for the last time — the leave- 
taking by the Commander-in-Chief of the officers of 
his army. This occurred in the " great room " of 
Fraunces' tavern, the fashionable hostelry of the 
day, and where Washington had fixed his head- 
quarters. On Thursday, December 4, 1783, the 
principal officers assembled at the tavern for the 
final parting. It was a time of farewells. They 
were never to meet again as soldiers. Washington 
is said to have been affected to tears. He entered 
the room where the true and tried comrades were 
assembled, and, taking a glass of wine in his hand, 
spoke as follows : 

" With a heart full of love and gratitude I now 
take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your 
latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your 
former ones have been glorious and honorable." 
-Having drank, he continued. " I cannot come to 
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged 
to you if each will come and take me by the hand." 
Knox, Washington's favorite officer, who stood 
nearest him, turned and grasped his hand, and while 
the tears rolled down the cheeks of each, the Com- 
mander-in-Chief kissed him. This he did to each 
one in turn, while tears and sobs stifled utterance. 
Soon repressing his emotion, however, Washington 
left the room and walked in silence to Whitehall, 
followed by a great multitude, and there, at two 
o'clock, military rank and state laid aside, he entered 
a barge to proceed to Paulus Hook on his way to 
Virginia. 




XVII. 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 



The colonies were now free, but they were by no 
means a nation. They were in fact separate, dis- 
tinct sovereignties, each with prejudices and inter- 
ests, rights and privileges of its own, which were 
jealously guarded. The Articles of Confederation, 
adopted in 1777, were but temporary expedients, 
and weak at the best. The Continental Congress 
was little more than an advisory council ; it might 
make laws but it had no power to execute them ; it 
could neither impose duties, nor lay taxes, nor make 
treaties, nor conduct other necessary diplomatic 
business. Manifestly some strong central power, 
general in scope, must be organized to perform 
these functions. To create that power, to construct 
a strong, national government and yet preserve un- 
impaired the rights of the States, was the problem 
presented to the statesmen of that period ; fortu- 
nately they were equal to the task. That Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Morris, 
Randolph, Luther Martin, and their confreres were 
statesmen indeed, the strain of a hundred years has 
proved. 

In February, 1787, in answer to a request from a 

349 



350 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

convention which had been held at AnnapoHs, Mary- 
land, the preceding September, Congress called a con- 
vention of delegates from the several States to meet 
at Philadelphia in May, 1787, ''for the sole and ex- 
press purpose of revising the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, and reporting to Congress and the various 
Legislatures such alterations and new provisions as 
should be necessary to meet the exigencies of gov- 
ernment and preserve the Union." A " revision " 
was all that the framers of this call contemplated. 

The delegates from New York were the eminent 
lawyers John Lansing, Robert Yates, and Alexander 
Hamilton. Hamilton favored a strong Federal gov- 
ernment, while Lansing and Yates were bitterly 
opposed to it. The majority in the State Legisla- 
ture, which elected them, was also opposed to it. 
New York, as a State, was opposed to any scheme 
of a national government. Under the Confederacy 
her great commercial advantages and vast extent of 
territory gave her a preponderance of power, where- 
as under a federal form of government she would in 
some important respects possess no more power than 
the smallest State.,_, The convention met in May. 
Fifty-five members were present, representing every 
State except Rhode Island. A body of men pos- 
sessing equal genius, learning, and wisdom had prob- 
ably never before met. Washington was President. 
Benjamin Franklin, eighty-two years of age, was a 
delegate from Pennsylvania ; Robert Morris, the great 
financier, and George Read, one of the signers of the 
Declaration, were his colleagues. South Carolina 
sent three accomplished lawyers — John Rutledge 



CONS TITU TION MA KING. 3 5 I 

and the two Pinckneys— Charles C. and Charles— the 
two first-named educated at Oxford and the Temple. 
From Virginia came, in addition to Washington, 
George Wythe, her Chancellor, and his pupil, James 
Madison, a handsome, graceful man of thirty-seven, 
who proved himself a leading mind in the convention. 
Luther Martin, afterward counsel for Aaron Burr in 
his famous trial for treason, and John Dickinson, 
who had also been trained in law in the Temple, 
were the central figures of the Maryland delegation. 
Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey ; Caleb 
Strong, Elbridge Gerry, and Rufus King, of Massa- 
chusetts ; William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, 
and Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, were the 
greatest minds and purest patriots of their respective 
States. Hamilton, not yet thirty, with slight, grace- 
ful form and boyish face, is generally admitted to 
have been one of the leading spirits of the body. 
He had made a study of the science of government ; 
he had a definite plan and matured ideas on the sub- 
ject to present, while the others, with the possible 
exception of Madison, had not. The convention sat 
nearly four months before it could complete its 
labors. It was soon found to be composed of three 
parties— ultra Federalists, ultra Republicans, and a 
third moderate party occupying middle ground be- 
tween the two. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, 
submitted a scheme for a central government, mak- 
ing the States subordinate, and modelled somewhat 
after the English plan.j There was to be a Senate 
and House of Representatives to make the laws, and 
a President to execute them. Senators and the 



35^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

President were to be elected for life or during good 
behavior. Governors of States were to be appointed 
by the Senate and President, and were to have the 
power of vetoing the acts of the State Legislatures. 
The Republicans, or Democrats as we should now 
call them, led by Franklin, opposed this plan. They 
wished the States to retain all the powers they then 
possessed, and to have the old Confederation, altered 
to meet present needs, continue in force. There 
was much heated discussion between the advocates 
of the two plans, and for a time it seemed probable 
that the convention would agree on nothing. At 
last James Madison, leader of the moderate party, 
came forward with a plan which combined portions 
of both systems, and which was the framework of 
the present Constitution of the United States. This 
compromise plan was opposed at first by both 
parties, but, at last, enough of the extremists on 
both sides to pass it were won over, and on Septem- 
ber 17, 1787, it was adopted. It had next to be 
ratified by nine of the thirteen States, and here came 
the tug of war. In New York the contest was fierce 
and bitter. The Republicans, led by Governor 
George Clinton, opposed even the modified plan. 
Her delegates, Yates and Lansing, had withdrawn 
from the convention before it had passed, saying 
that Hamilton, in advocating it, had exceeded 
his powers. The objections of the Republicans to the 
instrument were, that it robbed the States of their 
sovereignty ; that it clothed the President with too 
much power; and that the people were not sufifi- 
ciently protected by a Bill of Rights. To these 



CONSTITUTION MAKINV. 353 

objections Hamilton, Jay, and Madison responded in 
a series of celebrated papers called The Federalist, 
which showed with convincing logic and wonderful 
force and clearness of statement that the American 
States could never hope to become any thing more 
than a group of petty, jealous, warring provinces, 
unless they consented to waive a few of their rights 
for the public good and unite as one powerful, 
puissant nation. 

A State convention was called for ratifying the 
Constitution, and met in Poughkeepsie June 17, 
1788, with Governor George Clinton as President. 
From New York City were sent as delegates, Jay, 
Hamilton, Chancellor Livingston, Richard Morris, 
the Chief-Justice of New York, and James Duane, 
the Mayor. The city was in favor of the Constitu- 
tion. There the influence of Hamilton, Jay, Chan- 
cellor Livingston, and other liberal minds was para- 
mount, but in the State at large the prevailing 
sentiment was against it. Four counties, it was 
found, had elected Federalists, eight had elected 
Republicans, and two were divided. There were in 
all sixty-seven delegates. A long and acrimonious 
discussion followed. The majority of the delegates 
were strongly opposed to New York's giving up her 
advantages as the Empire State. Perhaps they 
would not have consented at this time had not 
news come that New Hampshire had adopted the 
Constitution. New Hampshire made up the requi- 
site majority of nine States ; the Constitution had 
been adopted. New York must therefore accept it, 
or secede from the Confederation. She chose the 



354 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

former alternative, and agreed to ratify the instru- 
ment, July 26, 1788. A great popular demonstration 
in favor of it, held in New York City, July 23d, is 
said to have had its influence. This was one of the 
grandest and most elaborate occasions the city had 
as yet seen, and was the first instance, it is believed, 
of trades' guilds appearing as such in public proces- 
sion in the city. We condense a description of it 
from the newspapers of the day, which the reader 
may contrast with those of some modern proces- 
sions. 

At ten in the morning thirteen guns from the 
federal ship Hamilton gave the signal for the pro- 
cession to move, the different bodies composing it 
being already assembled in the City Hall Park. The 
route was down Broadway to Great Dock Street, 
thence through Hanover Square, Pearl, Chatham, 
Division, Arundel, and Bullock streets, to the Bay- 
ard House, near Grand Street, where, beneath a rus- 
tic temple, a banquet for six thousand guests had 
been spread. Ten divisions, representing the ten 
States which had adopted the Constitution, com- 
posed the procession. First marched a body of light 
horse in full regimentals, preceded by a band of 
trumpeters and a company of artillery with a field- 
piece. Next came Christopher Columbus on horse- 
back, preceded and followed by foresters with axes. 
The farmers came next, Nicholas Cruger in farmer's 
dress guiding a plow to which three yoke of oxen 
were attached, while John Watts, also in farmer's 
costume, conducted a harrow drawn by both oxen 
and horses ; many farmers followed. Then came a 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 355 

newly invented threshing machine, under the care of 
Baron Polnitz, threshing and winnowing grain, cap- 
able, the old chroniclers say, of threshing and clean- 
ing seventy-two bushels of grain per day. On a 
splendid gray horse, elegantly caparisoned and led 
by two colored men in Oriental costume, Anthony 
White bore the sculptured arms of the United 
States, and following in full military uniform 
marched the local Society of the Cincinnati. Then 
came gardeners in green aprons, tarilors attended by 
a band of music, grain measurers, with banners 
depicting brimming measures, and underneath the 
lines : 

" Federal measures and measures true 
Shall measure out justice to us and you.' 

The bakers made a handsome appearance. First 
came ten apprentices, clad in white aprons with blue 
sashes, each carrying a large rose decorated with 
ribbons ; then ten journeymen in similar garb pre- 
ceding a large square platform on wheels drawn by 
ten bay horses, on which was mounted the federal 
loaf, which bore the names in full of the ten con- 
senting States, and in the baking of which a whole 
barrel of flour had been used. 

Next marched the brewers and coopers, the latter 
presenting a striking appearance with their thirteen 
apprentice boys, each thirteen years of age, dressed 
in white shirts, trousers, and stockings, and in hats 
ornamented with thirteen pillars, colored green and 
white. After the boys came forty-two apprentices, 
with green oak branches in their hands, and then a 



356 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

stage drawn by four bay horses, with workmen upon 
it at work on a new cask, which was completed as 
the procession moved, and long preserved as the 
'' federal cask." 

After the stage came one hundred and thirty- 
eight masters and journeymen coopers, each carry- 
ing green oak branches in their right hands, and 
wearing oaken boughs in their hats. After these 
came the butchers, the tanners and curriers, the 
breeches-makers and glovers, the cord-wainers, the 
carpenters, the furriers, the hatters, the peruke 
makers and hair-dressers, the florists, whitesmiths, 
cutlers, confectioners, stone-masons, bricklayers, 
painters, cabinet-makers, chair-makers, ivory turners, 
and musical instrument makers, drum-makers, up- 
holsterers, weavers, paper stainers, civil engineers, 
shipwrights, blacksmiths, ship-joiners, boat-builders, 
block and pump-makers, sail-makers and riggers, 
each with their appropriate emblems. 

Heading the seventh division was the '' federal ship 
Hamilton,'' the great feature of the procession, " a 
frigate of thirty-two guns, twenty-seven feet keel, 
and ten feet beam, with galleries, and every thing 
complete and in proportion, both in hull and rigging, 
manned with thirty seamen and marines in uniform, 
commanded by Commodore Nicholson, and drawn 
by ten horses." This gallant craft played an impor- 
tant part in the procession. Thirteen guns from 
her deck, as we have seen, gave the signal for the 
procession to move. 

" She then got under way," continues the chronicler, 
*' with her top-sails a-trip and courses in the brails, pro- 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 357 

ceeding in the centre of the procession. When abreast of 
Beaver Street she made the proper signal for a pilot by 
hoisting a jack at the fore-top mast-head and firing a gun. 
The pilot-boat appeared upon her weather quarter ; the 
frigate threw her main-top-sail to the mast ; the boat 
hailed and asked the necessary questions ; the pilot was 
received on board, and the boat dismissed. The frigate 
then filled, and moved abreast of the fort, where the crew 
discovered the President and Members of Congress. She 
immediately brought to, and fired a salute of thirteen 
guns, which was followed by three cheers, and politely 
answered by the gentlemen of Congress. The proces- 
sion then moved. When the ship came opposite Mr. 
Constable's, the crew discovered at the window Mrs. 
Edgar, who had generously honored the ship with the 
present of a suit of silk colors. Immediately they 
manned ship, and gave three cheers. When she arrived 
abreast of Old Slip she was saluted with thirteen guns 
from his Most Catholic Majesty's packet, then in the 
harbor, which was politely returned. She then made 
sail, and proceeded through Queen Street to the fields 
(City Hall Park), when squalls coming on, and the wind 
ahead, she beat to windward by short tacks, in which the 
pilot displayed his skill in navigation, heaving the lead, 
getting ready for stays, putting the helm a-lee, etc. In 
the fields she had to descend several hills, in raising 
which she afforded a delightful prospect to the specta- 
tors, her top-sails appearing first, and then her hull, in 
imitation of a ship at sea, exhibiting an appearance be- 
yond description, splendid and majestic. When she 
arrived at her station abreast of the dining station, she 
clewed up her top-sails, and came to, in close order with 
the rest of the procession, the officers going ashore to 
dine. At four o'clock she gave the signal for marching 



358 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

by a discharge of thirteen guns, when the procession 
moved by the lower road."^ The manner in which the 
ship made her passage through the narrow part of the 
road was highly interesting and satisfactory, being 
obliged to run under her fore-top-sail in a squall and 
keep in the line of the procession. This was accom- 
plished with great hazard by the good conduct of the 
commander and the assiduity of the seamen and pilot. 
She arrived at her moorings abreast of the Bowling Green 
at half-past five, amidst the acclamations of thousands, 
and the different orders of procession, as soon as they 
were dismissed, honored her with three cheers as a mark 
of approbation for the good conduct of the commodore 
and crew." 

After the frigate, which was near the centre of the 
procession, came a handsome pilot-boat full manned. 
Then the Marine Society, with its white silk banner, 
and after it more guilds — the printers, bookbinders, 
stationers, cartmen, carvers and engravers, coach 
and harness - makers, coppersmiths, tin - plate 
workers, pewterers, goldsmiths and silversmiths, 
potters, tobacconists, dyers, brushmakers, tallow 
chandlers, and saddlers, each with banners, devices, 
and emblazoned symbols of its craft, and with hun- 
dreds of its craftsmen clad in gala attire and bearing 
green oak branches in their hands and boughs in 
their hats. The ninth division was formed of the 
gentlemen of the bar in their robes, '^ two and two," 
of the Philological Society, faculty and students of 
the university, and of the merchants of the city\ In 
the tenth and last division marched the physicians, 

* Broadway. 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 359 

distinguished strangers and gentlemen, and, bringing 
up the rear, a section of artillery. 

" The line of procession," to again quote our chronicler, 
"containing nearly five thousand persons, extended 
upwards of a mile and a half. The march was slow and 
majestic, and the appearance of the scene as far sur- 
passed every one's expectation as mere description must 
fall short of it. While numberless crowds were pressing 
on every side, the doors and windows of houses were 
thronged by the fair daughters of Columbia, whose ani- 
mated smiles and satisfaction contributed not a little to 
complete the general joy. As this splendid, novel, and 
interesting exhibition moved along, an unexpected silence 
reigned throughout the city, which gave a solemnity to 
the whole transaction. No noise was heard but the deep 
rumbling of carriage wheels, with the necessary salutes 
and signals. . . . The whole body having arrived 
at Bayard's house, were disposed in a line and reviewed ; 
after which, the varied insignia of the procession being 
left upon the fields, the citizens were conducted to their 
several dining * tables, where they were honored by 
the company of Congress, of many foreigners of dis- 
tinction, and the patriotic and respectable clergy of the 
city." 

The building provided for the entertainment con- 
sisted of three large pavilions connected by a col- 
onnade of one hundred and fifty feet front, and 
beautifully decorated with the arms and colors of 
the nations in alliance with America. Thirteen 
toasts followed the grand dinner in order as follows : 
1st. The United States. 2d. The States which have 
ratified the new Constitution. '3d. The Convention 



360 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

of the State of New York : may it soon add an 
eleventh pillar to the federal edifice. 4th. General 
Washington. 5th. His Most Christian Majesty. 
6th. His Catholic Majesty. 7th. The States-Gen- 
eral of the United Netherlands. 8th. The friendly 
powers in Europe. 9th. The patriotic framers of 
the present national Constitution. loth. The mem- 
ory of those heroes who have fallen in defence of 
American liberty. nth. Success to agriculture, 
manufactures, and the sciences. 12th. May trade 
and navigation flourish. 13th. The day: may the 
union of the States be perpetual. After each toast 
ten cannon were fired, and in order '' to diffuse the 
joy to all classes of citizens, an ample proportion of 
the entertainment was despatched to the prisoners in 
gaol. The repast ended, the procession returned in 
the same manner to its place of setting out ; and the 
citizens were dismissed by half-past five o'clock." 
A grand display of fireworks in the evening closed 
the pageant. 

On the Saturday following, news reached New 
York of the adoption of the Constitution by the 
convention, and again the city was thrown into par- 
oxysms of joy. The bells rang triumphant peals, 
and the great fort on the Battery, and the federal 
ship Hamilton fired salutes, while the merchants and 
citizens went in a body to the homes of Hamilton, 
Jay, Livingston, and other leading Federalists and 
testified their approval with cheers. Even the 
anti-Federalists, it is said, forgot their fears, and 
cheered as heartily as the rest. 

Congress formally ^adopted the Constitution Sep- 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 36 1 

temberi3, 1788, and appointed the first Wednesday 
in January, 1789, as the day when the people should 
meet to choose electors for their first President ; it 
also provided that the first Congress under the new 
Constitution should meet in New York on the4th day 
of March following. Then there was fresh excitement 
in the city, for a suitable capitol had to be provided 
in which Congress might meet. Thirty-two thousand 
dollars were quickly subscribed, and the old City 
Hall, which has been described as standing at the 
corner of Broad and Wall streets, was given into the 
hands of Major L' Enfant to be remodelled and re- 
furnished. Major L' Enfant was a gallant French- 
man, a skilled engineer and architect, who had 
offered his services to Congress in the beginning of 
the Revolution, and who first taught American en- 
gineers how to build forts and earthworks. Later 
he planned our capital city, Washington. When 
the City Hall came from his hands it was admitted 
by all critics to be a tasteful and appropriate edifice. 
The basement story was of the Tuscan order, and was 
pierced with seven openings. Four massive pillars 
in the centre supported four Doric columns and a 
pediment. The frieze was ingeniously divided to 
admit thirteen stars in metopes, which, with the 
American eagle and other insignia in the pediments, 
the tablets filled with thirteen arrows over the win- 
dows, and the olive branches united, marked it as 
a building designed for national purposes. The two 
chief apartments were the Senate Chamber and the 
Hall of Representatives. The former, on the left of 
the vestibule, was forty feet long, thirty wide, and 



362 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

twenty high, with an arched ceiHng. There were 
three windows in front opening into a gallery 
(shown in the engraving p. 367) twelve feet deep and 
guarded by an iron railing. The chamber was deco- 
rated with pilasters of an order invented by Major 
L'Enfant. Tuscan pilasters adorned the lobby,— 
forty-eight feet long and nineteen wide — by which 
the chamber was approached. The hall of the 
House of Representatives, opposite the Senate 
Chamber, was a spacious apartment sixty-one feet 
deep, fifty-eight wide, and thirty-six high. In 
form it was octangular, four of its sides being 
rounded in the form of niches. Above the lofty 
windows were placed Ionic columns and pilasters, 
and in the panels between the windows were carved 
trophies, and the letters U. S. in a cipher surrounded 
with laurels. The chair of the Speaker occupied a 
raised dais, approached by several steps opposite the 
main entrance, and in front in two semicircular rows 
were the seats of the members. Two galleries were 
provided for spectators. We have been thus par- 
ticular in our description of this building because 
here the first President of the United States — 
George Washington — took the oath of office, and 
because here the first Congress under the Constitu- 
tion assembled. The first Congress and the first 
President — truly New York has been honored above 
her peers. 

Congress was to have met on the 4th of March, 
1789, but, as the day came, only eight Senators and 
thirteen Representatives presented themselves — not 
enough of either branch for a quorum, — the missing 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 363 

members having been delayed by the state of the 
roads. A great gulf seems to open between us and 
the year, 1789, when we compare the means of 
transit then in vogue with those that we enjoy. 
'' Stage-boats " and stage-coaches were the only 
public conveyances. Six days by sloop and coach 
were often consumed in the journey from New York 
to Philadelphia. In March the travelling was es- 
pecially difficult, and it was not until the 6th of 
April that the members, toiling slowly forward by 
stage or on horseback, now mired in the March mud, 
now water-bound by swollen rivers, reached the cap- 
ital in sufficient numbers to organize the Congress. 

When organized, however, it was not long in learn- 
ing who had been chosen the first President. Wash- 
ington had received every vote — the only President 
unanimously elected. John Adams, of Massachu- 
setts, was elected Vice-President. Washington, ap- 
prised by official messenger, left his home in Virginia 
on the i6th of April for New York. His journey 
was a triumphal procession ; in every city and town 
crowds gathered spontaneously, and hailed him as 
their deliverer. At Gray's Ferry, near Philadelphia, 
a civic crown of laurel was dropped upon his head as 
he passed underneath an arch and through long 
avenues of laurel transplanted from the neighboring 
forests. At Trenton, thirteen beautiful maidens 
strewed flowers in his pathway, and chanted an ode 
in praise of the hero. At Elizabethtown Point, he 
was met by a Committee of Congress, with Elias 
Boudinot at its head, the mayor and recorder of 
New York, and other officials, and escorted on board 



364 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

an elegant barge, provided for the purpose, and com- 
manded by Commodore Nicholson. As the little 
vessel moved from the shore, scores of other barges, 
beautifully decorated with flags and streamers, fell 
into line, and the procession swept through the nar- 
row strait of the Kill von Kull, and across the beau- 
tiful bay to New York, while guns thundered and 
bands of music played, and the ships in the harbor, 
literally covered with bunting, dipped their colors in 
salute to the Chief-Magistrate. At the railing of the 
ferry stairs on Murray wharf. Governor Clinton stood 
ready to receive him, and the two, preceded by the 
military and Committee of Congress, and attended 
by the mayor and aldermen, the clergy, the foreign 
ministers, and numbers of distinguished citizens, 
passed through the crowded streets, amid deafening 
huzzas, to the Osgood mansion, on the corner of 
Cherry Street and Franklin Square, which had been 
prepared for the President's reception. Washington 
arrived on the 24th of April ; John Adams, the Vice- 
President, on the 22d. Six days were employed in 
preparations for the inaugural ceremonies, which, as 
completing the fabric of a national government, it 
had been decided should be of the most imposing 
character. Thunder of guns, therefore, aroused the 
city on the memorable 30th of April, 1789. At nine 
o'clock every bell in the city rang merry peals for a 
few moments and then suddenly ceased. All din of 
traffic was hushed, and, in its place, vast throngs of 
eager people in holiday attire filled the streets. New 
York had never before been so crowded with visitors. 
They had come from town and country for hundreds 



CONSTITUTION MAKING. 365 

of miles around, and every incoming packet on sound 
and river but added to their numbers. All waited 
with bated breath the beginning of the ceremonies. 
After a measured interval the bells began again in 
slow, solemn tones, summoning the people to the 
churches to implore the blessing of God on the 
young nation and its untried President. 

After the religious services, the military formed in 
Cherry Street, opposite the house of the President, 
and when he came forth, attended by the joint com- 
mittee of the Senate and Plouse of Representatives, 
formed in columns and took position at the head of 
the procession. Following them came the sheriff of 
the city and county of New York, the committee of 
the Senate, the President-elect, the committee of the 
House, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, Secretary 
John Jay, Secretary Henry Knox, the Commissioners 
of the Treasury, and distinguished citizens, in car- 
riages. To the sound of martial music, the proces- 
sion then swept down Pearl Street to Broad, and up 
Broad to Wall, where, in front of Federal Hall, the 
regiments halted and opened ranks on either side, 
through which Washington and the distinguished 
company passed into the capitol and up the stairway 
to the Senate Chamber. Here the Senators and 
Representatives — dignified, reverend men, every one 
chosen for his commanding genius, statesmanship, 
and public services — awaited the chief. As he 
entered, John Adams arose, advanced, received him 
with the stately courtesy of the day, and conducted 
him to the Vice-President's chair, which he had just 
vacated ; then, after formally introducing him to the 
august body, he said : 



366 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

" Sir — The Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States are ready to attend you, to take 
the oath required by the Constitution, which will be 
administered by the Chancellor of the State of New 
York." 

" I am ready to proceed," was the President's 
reply. Vice-President Adams then conducted him to 
the gallery overlooking Wall Street, accompanied by 
the Senators, the Chancellor in his judicial robes, and 
other gentlemen. A wonderful sight met the eyes 
of the distinguished company. Wall and Broad 
streets were a sea of upturned faces ; the windows, 
balconies, and house-tops were filled with gayly 
dressed ladies ; flags and banners, caressed by the 
mild spring zephyrs, waved everywhere, all bearing 
the magic word Washington. From the whole vast 
throng, it was observed, not a whisper arose. But 
soon a group of three appeared between the central 
Doric columns of the gallery — the noble figure of the 
President on the right, opposite him Chancellor 
Livingston, in his robes, and between them the Sec- 
retary of the Senate, holding upon a crimson cushion 
an open Bible. Then the Chancellor, in words that 
reached every ear, repeated the solemn oath : *' You 
do solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States, and 
will, to the best of your ability, preserve, protect, 
and defend the Constitution of the United States." 
" I swear," said Washington, as he bent to kiss the 
Bible, adding with fervor : '* So help me God." 
Chancellor Livingston turned to the multitude and, 
waving his hand, cried with strong, triumphant voice : 




<: 

o 

o 

I— ( 

H 
<J 

^; 
i-i 

H 



368 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

" Long live George Washington, President of the 
United States ! " and from the people arose resound- 
ing cheers, while the spires shook with pealing of 
bells, and over all swelled the thunder of cannon 
from forts and ships and marshalled ranks. A calm 
onlooker would have said the city was mad with joy. 
And truly it had cause. 

A great idea was firmly rooted that day — the idea of 
nationality. No more petty, weak, separated States, 
but a mighty nation, America j- the United States. 
No doubt to those patriotic men the future opened 
its ravishing vistas, and they saw beyond our time 
what this nation hopes to be, — first among peoples, 
the noblest, strongest, grandest — because the freest — 
nation of the earth ! 



PART III. 
THE FREE CITY. 




XVIII. 

THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. 

For a year New York continued to be the capital. 

the court town. Washington and his cabinet 

ministers — Jefferson, Hamilton, and Knox, John 
Adams, the Vice-President, Chief-Justice Jay, Gov- 
ernor Qinton, and other high officers of government 
—removed their famihes to the city and formed the 
court circle. In the diary left by Washington 
during this period we gain pleasant glimpses of the 
inner life of this circle. Official life was then attended 
with much more of stately ceremonial and court 
etiquette than is now practised. The President's 
intercourse with Congress was modelled after the 
English form, and his messages to that body were 
delivered in person, after the fashion of the English 
kings. In his diary for January 8, 1790, he gives an 
interesting account of this ceremony. A committee 
first perfected arrangements. Then, at eleven o'clock, 
he set out for Federal Hall— where Congress, in joint 
session, was assembled—" in a coach," he tells us, 

"drawn by six horses, preceded by Col. Humphreys 
and Major Johnson, in uniform, on my two white 
horses, and followed by Messrs. Lear and Nelson in 

371 



372 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

my chariot, and Mr. Lewis, on horse-back, following 
them. In their rear was the Chief-Justice of the 
United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury 
and War Departments (Hamilton and Knox), in their 
respective carriages and in the order they are named. 
At the outer door I was met by the door-keepers of the 
Senate and House, and conducted to the door of the 
Senate Chamber, and passing from thence to the chair, 
through the Senate on the right and the House on the 
left, I took my seat. The gentlemen who attended me 
followed and took their stand behind the Senators, the 
whole rising as I entered. After being seated, at which 
time the members of both Houses also sat, I rose as they 
also did, and made my speech, delivering one copy to 
the President of the Senate and another to the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives ; after which, and being 
a few minutes seated, I retired, bowing on each side to 
the assembly (who stood) as I passed, and descending 
to the lower hall, attended as before, I returned with 
them to my house." 

A few days later Congress was ready to return an 
answer to the President's message, and at his request 
waited on him at his house in Franklin Square, ^' the 
members of both coming in carriages, and the latter, 
with the Mace, preceding the Speaker." " The ad- 
dress of the Senate was presented by the Vice-Presi- 
dent, and that of the House by the Speaker thereof." 

In the social amenities of the times, the Chief 
Magistrate was also a prominent figure. He kept a 
retinue of servants, horses, and carriages ; the silver- 
plate and lighter articles of furniture were transferred 
from Mount Vernon, first to the Franklin-Square 



THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. 373 

house, and in 1790 to the McComb mansion on 
Broadway, a little south of Trinity Church, which 
remained the President's home during his stay in 
New York. He loved riding, walking, and all forms 
of manly exercise, and his noble figure — six feet three 
in height and straight as an arrow — became a famil- 
iar object to the citizens. He entertained gener- 
ously, and was entertained with equal hospitality. 
When Congress called with its answer to the address, 
twelve favored members, we are told, remained to 
dine. We read of his going in the post-chaise with 
Madam Washington to call on the Vice-President 
and his wife at Richmond Hill. On his return he 
walked to Rufus King's to make a social call, but 
neither that statesman nor his wife were at home. 
Another time he honors Secretary and Mrs. Hamil- 
ton, Mr. and Mrs. Rufus King, General and Mrs. 
Philip Schuyler, Mrs. Greene, and Mrs. Adams with 
tickets to his private box in the John Street theatre ; 
and when the distinguished party enters, the audi- 
ence rises, and remains standing until it is seated. 
In one day we find he made business calls on Chief- 
Justice Jay and Secretary Knox, called informally on 
Governor Clinton, Mr. Ralph Izard, General Philip 
Schuyler, and Mrs. Dalton, entertained at dinner 
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard and son. Dr. Johnson, 
lady and daughter, and Chief-Justice Jay, and after- 
ward went with Mrs. Washington to the dancing as- 
sembly and remained there until ten o'clock. His 
levees on Tuesday were great social occasions. On 
the 1 2th (December, 1789) he "exercised with Mrs. 
Washington and the children in the coach between 



374 ^^^ STORY OF NEW YORk\ 

breakfast and dinner, — went the fourteen miles' 
round." This "round" followed the " Old Boston 
Road " as far as ]\IcGowan's Pass, thence westerly to 
the Bloomingdale Road, lined at that time with villas 
and country-seats, and back along the banks of the 
Hudson to the city, — the favorite drive of New 
Yorkers in those days. On the 14th he " walked 
round the Battery in the afternoon." On Christmas- 
day, " went to St. Paul's Chapel in the forenoon. 
The visitors to Mrs. Washington this afternoon were 
not numerous, but respectable." 

New Year's Day introduced a new custom to the 
courtly Virginian, — the custom of congratulatory 
calls. Between twelve and three he was visited by 
the Vice-President, Governor Clinton, the members 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, the 
foreign ambassadors, and the principal gentlemen of 
the city. Later in the day great numbers of ladies 
and gentlemen gathered to Mrs. Washington's weekly 
levee, which was held on this day (Friday). In the 
evening those guests that remained were regaled on 
plum and plain cake, tea and coffee, and the evening 
was spent in social intercourse. Washington in- 
quired whether this custom of New Year's calling 
was a long-established one or otherwise ; and on 
being told that it had been introduced by the Dutch 
founders of New Amsterdam, remarked that with 
the influx of emigrants many of the ancient customs 
and manners of the city would, of necessity, be 
changed, "but whatever changes take place," said 
he, *' never forget the cordial and cheerful observ- 
ance of New Year's Day." The houses of Jay, 



THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. 375 

Hamilton, Knox, Vice-President Adams, and Gover- 
nor Clinton were also centres of social courtesies 
during this period. 

Meantime the question of a site for the permanent 
capital of the nation was agitating the minds of 
Congressmen and of the people. New York would 
undoubtedly have been chosen, but neither State 
nor city was willing to cede the ten miles square of 
territory demanded by the general government. 
Philadelphia was mentioned, but Southern Senators 
objected because her Quakers " were eternally dog- 
ging Southern members with their schemes of 
emancipation." Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia 
advocated a site on the Potomac which, as we know, 
was finally chosen. But while the capital city was 
being built. Congress decided to hold its sessions in 
Philadelphia ; and when it rose on the 12th of August, 
1790, adjourned to meet in Philadelphia the next 
December, — a decision that caused great dissatis- 
faction in New York. A print of the day represents 
Robert Morris marching off to Philadelphia with 
Federal Hall on his back and the Evil One on the 
roof of Paulus Hook ferry-house beckoning en- 
couragingly and crying, *' This way, Bobby." 

Thus New York lost her court circle. President 
and Senators, legislative processions, weekly levees, 
court balls, and State pageants faded from her 
streets, and were seen no more. Not entirely to her 
disadvantage, however, for her genius was commer- 
cial, and along this line her marvellous development 
was to come. Not then, however; it was not chiefly 
to commerce, but to politics, that the bold and dar- 



3/6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

ing spirits of that day turned. In fact, law and pol- 
itics were almost the only openings then available to 
men of genius. Of art, science, literature, there was 
none ; and of commerce, very little. Hence, we find 
that the great lawyers of that day were statesmen, 
and the great statesmen were lawyers. Clinton, 
Hamilton, Burr, Jay, Livingston, Duane — it was so 
in almost every case. 

For a time after the adoption of the Constitution 
party spirit was stilled, but it very soon revived. 
There were too many points of difference between 
the two great parties for them to remain long at 
peace. These parties were the Federalist and the 
Republican — the same that had been defined by the 
contest over the Constitution, but they had now be- 
come much stronger, and their creeds were more 
sharply defined. The Federalist was styled by its 
opponents " the English party." Its leaders re- 
garded the English constitution as the most perfect 
ever devised by man. They advocated a national 
form of government, a powerful standing army, the 
formality and etiquette of courts, a diplomatic ser- 
vice like that of Europe, the restriction of the suf- 
frage, the encouragement of foreign commerce and 
of domestic manufactures — the latter by a protective 
tariff. They disliked France and the French people^ 
and viewed with horror the French Revolution, which 
was now beginning to attract the attention of the 
world. The Republicans, on the other hand, advo- 
cated simplicity and economy in the government, a 
doing away with all monarchical forms, the employ- 
ment of a well-drilled militia instead of a standing 



THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. 377 

army, open sessions of Congress, an extension of the 
franchise, the encouragement of agriculture and inter- 
nal trade, rather than of foreign commerce, and they 
ardently espoused the cause of the French people. 

The success of the Constitution, which was largely 
an embodiment of the federal principle, had placed 
the Federalists in power, but the Republicans were 
still numerous and powerful. New York City, under 
the leadership of Hamilton, Jay, and others, was 
staunchly Federalist, but the State at large, con- 
trolled by Governor George Clinton, was Republi- 
can. The differences between the two parties were 
so great, and the prize in view — the privilege of 
shaping the destiny of the young nation — so coveted, 
that their struggle for supremacy became the most 
bitter and exciting ever known in American politics. 

The story has been often told, and we will content 
ourselves with a brief history of the closing struggle 
which took place in New York, and in which two 
famous citizens of the city were the chief actors. 
These two men were Alexander Hamilton and 
Aaron Burr; the former a Federalist, the latter a 
Republican. Both have before appeared in our 
story, — Hamilton, as one of the chief framers of the 
Constitution, and as Washington's Secretary of the 
Treasury, where he had originated the financial 
policy of the nation. At this time, 1799, he had re- 
signed from the treasury and was practising law in 
New York, although his influence with its leaders 
still gave him almost supreme power in the Federal 
party. Aaron Burr, whom we last saw leading 
Silliman's brigade from New York before the British 



3/8 THE STORY OP NEW YORK. 

advance, had also studied law, and was now a lawyer 
in New York, and the only rival of Hamilton at its 
bar. He had filled several official positions with 
credit : had been Attorney-General of New York in 
1789, Senator from New York, 1791-1797; and, in 
the presidential contest of 1796, had received thirty 
electoral votes for President. He had been defeated 
for reelection to the Senate in 1797 by the Federal- 
ists, under Hamilton's leadership, and at once set to 
work to withdraw New York from their grasp, per- 
ceiving clearly that, with the electoral vote of that 
great State, the Republicans could elect their Presi- 
dent in 1800. He laid his plans with matchless 
tact, and carried them out with energy. Presidential 
electors, at that time, were chosen by the State 
Legislatures. He therefore caused himself to be 
elected to the New York Legislature, and, while 
there, bestowed favors and compliments, and other- 
wise ingratiated himself with rural members whom 
he knew to possess great influence with their home 
constituents ; he was also in constant communication 
with the party leaders in different States, and ar- 
ranged with them for a settled method of procedure 
in the campaign. Then, as the year 1 800 approached, 
he brought his marvellous powers as an organizer to 
work, to so discipline and organize the party in New 
York City as to insure victory. Aaron Burr first 
taught politicians the resistless power of party or- 
ganization in winning victories. True, there were 
other leaders — Edward Livingston, the jurist and 
statesman, who was given the mayoralty of New 
York for his services in this campaign ; his relative, 



THE FlkST TWENTY YEARS. 



379 



Judge Brockholst Livingston; ex-Governor George 
Clinton, the War Governor, and others ; but it wa§ 
generally admitted that Burr's matchless tact and 




energy won the victory. He began by gathering 
about him a body-guard of able, ardent, resolute 
young spirits— men of education and wit,— for the 



3 So THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

most part without birth or fortune, but ambitious of 
distinction, and imbued them with his courage and 
activity. These were the ward-workers, the men 
who attended to the primaries and caucuses, and saw 
to getting out a full vote ; the " Tenth Legion " — The- 
odosia. Burr's daughter, called them ; " Burrs Myr- 
midons^' they were styled by the Federal leaders. 
Burr played, too, with rare tact upon the two fac- 
tions of the party led by the Clintons and the Liv- 
ingstons. 

As the year 1800 drew near, all admitted that 
the only hope of Republican success lay in car- 
rying New York. That State, at this time, was Fed- 
eralist. John Jay was Governor. In the election of 

1799, the Republican ticket, headed by Aaron Burr, 
had been beaten by a majority of 900. In April, 

1800, the Legislature which was to elect presidential 
electors was to be chosen. Burr strained every nerve 
to make this body Republican. The strongest names 
that could be obtained were nominated — George 
Clinton, so long Governor of New York, Horatio 
Gates, the conqueror of Burgoyne, Samuel Osgood, 
Washington's Postmaster-General, and others whose 
names were towers of strength. He marshalled his 
body-guard again, and infused into the party in 
general that discipline and blind fealty which 
has ever since made New York a Democratic city. 
He made lists of Republican voters, noting each 
one's age, habits, residence, health, and tempera- 
ment ; he held ward and general meetings, and ad- 
dressed them, and watched with a wary eye the 
movements of his opponent, alert to take advantage 



382 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

of the slightest mistake or accident. Hamilton led 
the opposition. He, too, put all his heart and soul 
into the canvas, but although greatly the superior 
of Burr in depth of intellect and statesmanship, he 
lacked the latter's tact, executive ability, and mas- 
tery over men ; he made several grave mistakes 
which were quickly taken advantage of by his antag- 
onist. As the day approached, the result was felt to 
be doubtful. The polls opened on the 29th of April, 
and closed May 2d. They were days of supreme ex- 
ertion for the contestants, and of intense excitement. 
Business was largely suspended. Newspapers and 
pamphlets were scattered about like autumn leaves. 
From large platforms the rival chieftains addressed 
the people ; sometimes both occupied the same ros- 
trum, one listening with the deepest interest and 
courtesy while his opponent spoke, and then reply- 
ing with all the wit, logic, and eloquence at his com- 
mand. At sunset, on May 2d, the polls closed, and 
before the politicians slept, they knew that the Re- 
publicans had carried the city by a majority of 490 
votes — which meant that the Republicans would 
come into power at the next election. Hamilton 
was vastly chagrined, and the Federal leaders des- 
perate. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were 
shortly after nominated for President and Vice-Pres- 
ident by the Republicans, Burr receiving the second 
place for his services in carrying New York. But 
when the votes were opened, in February, 1801, it 
was found that there was a tie, the two candidates, 
Jefferson and Burr, having received exactly the same 
number of votes. This threw the election into the 



THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS, 383 

House, and a fierce contest arose, the Federalists 
wishing to make Burr President instead of Jefferson, 
whom they greatly disliked. It is probable that 
they would have done this, had it not been for Ham- 
ilton, who used his powerful influence with the Fed- 
eral leaders in favor of Jefferson, whose right to the 
office could not be disputed. The contest ended, at 
last, in favor of Jefferson. As Vice-President, from 
1801 to 1805, Colonel Burr performed his duties to the 
satisfaction of all, and is said to have been the best 
presiding officer the Senate ever saw. He still main- 
tained his town house and country-seat at Richmond 
Hill, in New York, and when not in Washington 
resided there, entertaining generously — two of his 
guests being the famous French diplomat, Talley- 
rand, and the author, Volney. 

Hamilton, in the meantime, remained in New 
York, practising his profession, but none the less 
watching keenly the course of political events. It 
was an era of bitter partisan feeling and recrimination. 
Duels, the result of political quarrels, were frequent. 
A fierce newspaper war was one of the features. The 
organ of the Federalists was the Minerva — which 
later became the Commercial Advertiser of to-day — 
its editor being Noah Webster, the famous maker of 
dictionaries. The organ of the Clintonian wing of 
the Republican party was the American Citizen^ 
edited by James Cheetham, an Englishman, whose 
fiery philippics were continually involving him in 
quarrels. Supporting Burr and his wing, and gener- 
ally regarded as the President's organ, was the 
Morning Chronicle^ edited by Dr. Peter Irving. In 



384 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

that paper, about this time, the dehghtful author, 
Washington Irving, first made his bow to the public. 
His essays, signed ''Jonathan Oldstyle," greatly 
pleased Colonel Burr, who was wont to cut them out 
and inclose them in letters to his daughter Theo- 
dosia. November 16, 1801, appeared the Eveiting 
Post J which was generally regarded as the mouthpiece 
of Hamilton. Its editor, William Coleman, was 
much the ablest and most reputable journalist of 
his day. The columns of all these papers bristled 
with scurrilous attacks on the opposition. 

As the days passed, it became evident that 
Colonel Burr could hope for no further prefer- 
ment from his party. The tie contest had marked 
him out to the powerful Virginia faction as a man 
to be crushed. The Clinton and Livingston in- 
terests in New York also combined against him. 
His name was scarcely mentioned in the presi- 
dential contest of 1804. He was then nominated 
by his friends as an independent candidate for 
Governor of New York, but was signally defeated. 
If now he could have stifled his political aspira- 
tions, and returned to the bar, as Hamilton had 
done, a brilliant and honorable career might still 
have been his ; but unfortunately he could not endure 
defeat with patience. 

At the close of the campaign of 1804, the manner 
in which General Hamilton was in the habit of 
speaking of Colonel Burr had been brought to the 
latter's attention in a manner that compelled him to 
take notice of it. During the contest, Cheetham, in 
his paper, had asked: "Is the Vice-President sunk 



THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. 385 

SO low as to submit to be insulted by General Ham- 
ton? A few weeks after, a newspaper containing a 
letter from a well-known physician — Dr. Charles D. 
Cooper — was put into Colonel Burr's hands. Two 
sentences in the letter were marked. One was : 

"■ General Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared 
in substance that they looked upon Mr. Burr to be 
a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be 
trusted with the reins of government." The other 
was : '' I could detail to you a still more despicable 
opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of 
Mr. Burr." Colonel Burr at once sent the paper by 
a friend to General Hamilton, with an indignant let- 
ter, in which he demanded "a prompt and unquali- 
fied acknowledgment or denial of the use of any 
expressions which would warrant the assertions of 
Mr. Cooper." 

Several letters passed between the two men. Gen- 
eral Hamilton replied that if Colonel Burr would 
specify any one expression or statement he might 
have made he would deny or acknowledge it, but he 
could not undertake to give a general denial or ac- 
knowledgment as to what he had or had not said, in 
the heat of political debate, during a period covering 
many years. Colonel Burr replied that the expres- 
sions attributed to General Hamilton attached dis- 
honor to him, and reiterated his demand that Gen- 
eral Hamilton should deny ever having said anything 
that would give color to the assertion of Dr. Cooper. 
This General Hamilton declined to do, and a chal- 
lenge was given and accepted. The duel, savage and 
murderous as we now justly regard it, was then the 



386 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

recognized mode among gentlemen of settling such 
disputes as this. Both chieftains had recognized it. 
Hamilton's eldest son had fallen in a duel a few years 
before. Burr had been a principal in one of the sav- 
age affairs. The partisans of both had fought for the 
honor of their chiefs, with the latter's approval, and 
there was therefore no other resource but for them 
to settle their quarrel in the recognized way. 

They met on the fatal field of Weehawken, sacred 
to these encounters, very near where the present tun- 
nel of the West Shore Line debouches upon the 
water front. At the first fire Hamilton fell mortally 
wounded ; Burr escaped unhurt. The stricken states- 
man was rowed across the river and carried to the 
residence of Mr. Bayard at Greenwich ; his own beau- 
tiful country-seat, ''The Grange," which he had 
built, in 1802, in the upper part of the island, being 
too far away for one to be conveyed in his dying con- 
dition. Servants were hastily sent for surgeons and 
nurses; Mrs. Hamilton was summoned, and later his 
children. The fatal meeting occurred at sunrise on 
July II, 1804. At nine o'clock on that morning a 
bulletin appeared on the board of the Tontine CoiTee- 
House ; '' General Hamilton was shot by Colonel 
Burr this morning in a duel," it said ; " the General 
is thought to be mortally wounded." With every 
hour came a fresh bulletin, each adding fuel to the 
flame. In one the General was reported to be slowly 
sinking; in a second, the arrival of the sorrow-strick- 
en wife and children, the calmness and resignation 
of the dying man, the over-mastering grief of Mrs. 
Hamilton were graphically pictured; in a third, 




o 



388 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the last sad scene, when the seven children were led 
in to take their last farewell of a dying father. Next 
morning a bulletin related the patient's sufferings 
during the night. At two o'clock another announced 
his death. The news swept swiftly through the city. 
Expressions of grief, pity, sympathy, mingled with 
execrations on the slayer, were heard on every side. 
At night a meeting of the merchants was held at the 
Tontine Coffee-House, and it was resolved to close 
the stores on the day of the funeral, to wear crape 
for thirty days, and to order the flags on the ship- 
ping at half-mast. Next morning the lawyers met, 
and agreed to wear mourning for six weeks. The 
various military companies, the Tammany Society, 
the Cincinnati, the students of Columbia College, 
the St. Andrew's Society, the General Society of 
Mechanics, and the Corporation of the city all passed 
resolutions of sympathy, and pledged themselves to 
attend the funeral in a body. 

Hamilton died on Thursday afternoon. On Sat- 
urday, in Trinity Church, the funeral was held. The 
city had never seen a more imposing pageant than 
the funeral cortege, as it moved slow-paced down 
Broadway amid the booming of minute-guns from 
the Battery and from British frigates and French 
men-of-war in the bay. Every organization in the 
city is said to have participated in the procession. 
At the church, on a platform, with the four sons of 
the dead statesman beside him, — the eldest sixteen, 
the youngest four, — Gouverneur Morris, the life-long 
friend of Hamilton, stood to deliver the funeral eulo- 
gium. Certain of his terse, forcible sentences the 
men of that generation never forgot. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



390 THE STORY OF NEW YORlC. 

" You know that he never courted your favor by adu- 
lation or the sacrifice of his own judgment. You have 
seen him contending against you, and saving your dear- 
est interests, as it were, in spite of yourselves. I declare 
to you before God, in whose presence we are now espe- 
cially assembled, that in his most private and confiden- 
tial conversations the single objects of discussion were 
your freedom and happiness. The care of a rising fam- 
ily and the narrowness of his fortune made it a duty 
to return to his profession for their support. But, 
though he was compelled to abandon public life, never, 
no, never for a moment, did he abandon the public ser- 
vice. He never lost sight of your interests. . . . For 
himself he feared nothing, but he feared that bad men 
might, by false profession, acquire your confidence and 
abuse it to your ruin." 

Thus tragically passed from the scene one of the 
greatest of the great men of the Revolutionary era. 

" The Patriot of Incorruptible Integrity, 
The Soldier of Approved Valor, 
The Statesman of Consummate Wisdom." 

One reads it on his modest tombstone in Trinity 
Churchyard — a truer panegyric than most. As for 
his slayer, the popular verdict — v^hether just or un- 
just — went against him. He became "a man with- 
out a country," socially ostracised, abhorred by 
Federalist and Republican alike. Good came of the 
statesman's death, however. It stilled, for a time, 
the rage of faction, for it was clearly seen that the 
duel was the outcome of the bitter political strife 
of the preceding fourteen years, and, as far at least 
as the States of the North were concerned, it abol- 
ished from polite society that savage and barbarous 
outgrowth of feudalism — the duello. 



XIX. 

A TYPICAL NEW YORK MERCHANT. 

Almost immediately on gaining her freedom New 
York began extending her commerce. Trade with 
England revived, her ships became familiar objects 
in French, German, and Russian seas; she tapped 
the rich commerce of the Mediterranean, and a little 
later strove with the merchants of Salem and Boston 
for the rich trade of China and the East. The 
greatest merchant of this era, and perhaps of any, 
was John Jacob Astor. His career has so much of 
inspiration in it for young readers, that we present 
its leading features in detail. He was born in the 
German village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, on the 
Rhine, In 1763. In the winter of 1784, he arrived in 
Baltimore, with a small stock of goods which he had 
brought from London, but with no other " pledges 
to fortune," except thrift, energy, good habits, and 
an invincible determination to succeed. A fellow- 
countryman, a furrier by trade, chanced to be on the 
same ship, and directed the young merchant's atten- 
tion to the possibilities of the fur trade, the result 
being that he determined to become a fur merchant. 
He came on to New York, sold his goods, and in- 
vested the proceeds in furs, which were bought of 

. 391 



392 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

the country traders and merchants as they came in. 
With these he returned to London, sold them at a 
profit, and then came back to New York with a view 
of settling permanently as a fur merchant. He at 
once set to work to inform himself thoroughly con- 
cerning his business. First, he apprenticed himself 
to a furrier, and learned the mechanical part of the 
trade. In a few years we find him with a store of 
his own.* But his aspiring mind did not long rest 
content with the retail tradesman's career. He be- 
gan to study the extent, capacity, and methods of 
the fur trade of North America, then nearly as valu- 
able as the gold and silver of the South had been to 
the Spanish. 

Montreal, Canada, he found to be the great fur 
mart. The rich trade in furs of that vast region 
later known as the Northwest, stretching from the 
shores of the Great Lakes to the head-waters of the 
Mississippi and Missouri, had been first organized by 
the French traders of Canada ; and when the latter 
country became a British possession, the trade nat- 
urally fell into the hands of its conquerors. 

At this moment, 1790, there were three rival com- 
panies in the field — the Hudson s Bay Company, char- 
tered in 1670, by Charles H., and granted exclusive 
right to the territory watered by Hudson's Bay and 

* Vide this advertisement in the New York Daily Advertiser of 
January 2, 1789. "John Jacob Astor, at 81 Queen Street, next 
door but one to the Friends' Meeting House, has for sale an assort- 
ment of piano fortes of the newest construction, made by the best 
makers in London, which he will sell at reasonable terms. He 
gives cash for all kinds of furs, and has for sale a lot of Canada 
beaver, and beaver coating, raccoon skins, etc." 



A TYPICAL NEW YORK MERCHANT, 393 

its tributaries ; the Northwest Company, founded in 
1787, and which garrisoned by its trading-posts the 
whole region of the upper lakes ; and the Macki- 
naw Company, whose head-quarters were on Macki- 
nac Island, at the mouth of Lake Michigan, and 
whose posts garrisoned the latter lake, the Fox and 
Wisconsin rivers, and the great Mississippi and its 
tributaries. 

The animals which produced the furs — chiefly the 
beaver, fox, mink, otter, and muskrat — were trapped 
by the Indians. The pelts were then cured and 
brought in to the " posts " or trading-stations, where 
they were exchanged for powder, ball, fire-arms, 
blankets, trinkets, and such other goods as the Indi- 
ans prized. Then, once a year, in the spring, great 
fleets of canoes and batteaux, filled with the goods 
for exchange, would set out from Montreal, ascend 
the Ottawa River, and thence by other rivers and 
portages reach Lake Huron, Lake Superio.r, and the 
most distant posts, collecting the furs which had 
been gathered by the post-traders, distributing the 
goods they had carried out, and at last, when the 
furs had all been collected, returning with them to 
Montreal. Our merchant began operations by buy- 
ing furs from these merchants of the Northwest 
Company, and shipping them direct to London — 
Canada, at that time, not being allowed to trade with 
any but the mother country. 

In 1795, however, a treaty was made with Eng- 
land which allowed American merchants to trade 
with Canada ; and from this time on, Mr. Astor's 
furs were sent direct from Montreal to New York. 



394 ^^-^ STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Some he used for the home supply, some were ship- 
ped to Europe, but the bulk he began sending to 
China, where much better prices could be obtained. 
Thus began Mr. Astor's China trade, which proved 
immensely profitable. In a few years, having abun- 
dant capital, he began asking himself if it were not 
better to buy his furs of the Indians themselves, and 
thus save the immense profits made by the North- 
west Company. The operations of the Mackinaw 
Company, he reasoned, were carried on almost en- 
tirely within the territory of the United States — a 
field which he thought belonged of right to citizens 
of the United States. He determined to occupy 
this field — a decision which was heartily approved 
by our government, which had long viewed with 
alarm the commercial influence possessed by British 
traders over the tribes within its borders. In 1809, 
the American Fur Company was chartered by the 
State of New York, with a capital of one million 
dollars, and the privilege of increasing it to two. 
This company was in reality, John Jacob Astor. He 
owned all of its stock, and directed its movements; 
but in order to cope with the Mackinaw Company, he 
desired the weight and authority of a government 
charter. He at once entered the field with energy, 
and began a hearty rivalry with the latter corpora- 
tion ; but the strife and bitterness thus engendered 
were so great, that in 181 1 he was led to purchase the 
Mackinaw Company and all its posts. Some of the 
partners of the Northwest Company were engaged 
with him in the enterprise, and it would no doubt 
have been very successful had not the war of 18 12 



A TYPICAL NEW YORK MERCHANT. 395 

broken out and put a stop to his operations. After 
the war these operations were not resumed, because 
Congress soon passed a law forbidding British trap- 
pers to pursue their vocation within our territory. 
But before this had happened, Mr. Astor's thoughts 
were occupied with a grander scheme. 

The great navigator, Captain Cook, in his last 
voyage had discovered that sea otter were numerous 
on the coast of Oregon. Now sea otter fur was a 
rarity greatly prized in China, so that, in a few 
years, there were a score of vessels, chiefly from 
Boston and Salem, on the northwest coast collect- 
ing these furs ; and then, when a cargo was gath- 
ered, sailing with it to Canton, China. One of 
these vessels, the Columbia, Captain Gray, of Bos- 
ton, in 1792, discovered and entered the great 
river Columbia, which empties into the Pacific in 
latitude 46° 5' N. and whose head-waters are a thou- 
sand miles back in the heart of the continent. No 
organized company had gained a foothold on this 
coast except the Russian Fur Company, whose posts 
were far to the northward of the Columbia. Mr. 
Astor now conceived the grand plan of establishing 
a colony of trappers and traders at the mouth of the 
Columbia, with posts stretching back in the interior 
along the river and its branches, and also up and 
down the coast, the whole to be supplied by his 
vessels, which would receive in return the furs 
gathered by the trappers. This plan was also 
confided to government, and President Jefferson, 
glad to have a chain of American posts established 
in that untrodden country to form the nuclei of 



396 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

future cities and towns, promised it all the assistance 
and protection in his power. Mr. Aster at once 
began preparations. He secured three partners 
from the Northwest Company, and with Mr. Wilson 
Hunt, of New Jersey, formed the Pacific Fitr Com- 
pany. He engaged voyageiirs and traders from the 
western wilderness. He fitted out a fine ship — the 
Tonqiiin — and placing her in command of one whom 
he deemed a competent commander, despatched her 
around the Horn to the mouth of the Columbia. 
She bore three of the partners and every thing neces- 
sary for the Indian trade and for the infant colony. 
At the same time a land party was organized under 
Mr. Hunt, to proceed overland to the head-waters of 
the Columbia, and thence down that stream to meet 
the Tonqiiin at its mouth. The Tonqtun sailed Sep- 
tember 8, 1 8 10, and reached the Columbia March 
22, 181 1. Here on Point George, the promontory 
overlooking the estuary into which the Columbia 
falls, the partners built the trading post, which in 
honor of their principal they called Astoria. The 
Tonqiiin then made sail and proceeded north on a 
trading voyage, as ordered by Mr. Astor. Much 
better would it have been if Captain Thorn, her 
commander, had obeyed orders in other respects as 
implicitly. He had been especially cautioned against 
allowing the coast Indians, who were a fierce and 
warlike race, to come on board in force. But he 
disobeyed these orders, and while lying in the har- 
bor of Neweetee, Vancouver's Island, the ship was 
taken by a large body of the natives, who came on 
board in friendly guise, but with arms concealed 



A TYPICAL NEW YORK MERCHANT. 397 

under their mantles. The captain and all of his 
crew, except Mr. Lewis, the supercargo, and four 
seaman, were savagely murdered. These five bar- 
ricaded themselves in the cabin, and with discharge 
of fire-arms Si3on cleared the ship. Then, as soon as 
it became dark, fearing that the savages would 
return, the four seamen took the ship's boat and set 
out on their return to Astoria, but Mr. Lewis, who 
was seriously wounded, refused to go and remained 
on the ship. He had formed a plan for avenging 
the butchery of his comrades. Next morning, by 
friendly signs, he enticed the Indians on board, and 
when the deck was covered with them, touched 
a match to the powder magazine and blew ship, 
Indians, canoes, and himself into fragments. A 
hundred savages were killed, it is said, in this holo- 
caust. But the four men who had embarked in the 
ship's boat met a worse fate. They were taken by 
the Indians, and put to death in revenge, with every 
refinement of torture that savage ingenuity could 
suggest. The loss of the Tonqiiin was the first of a 
series of mishaps, which, in the end, ruined this 
well-laid plan. 

Mr. Hunt, who left Montreal in August, 18 10, 
with a large party, to come by the overland route, 
reached his destination, after suffering incredible 
hardships, ragged, emaciated, with the loss of nearly 
all of his men and stores. Meantime Mr. Astor, 
unaware of the loss of the Tonquin, had despatched, 
in 181 1, a second ship, the Beaver, which found the 
little colony at Astoria in good health and spirits, 
and the trading posts, which had been established. 



398 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

well equipped and prosperous. No doubt the enter- 
prise would have proved successful and Oregon have 
been settled much earlier than she was, had not war 
(1812-1815) broken out between England and the 
United States, and put a stop to all industrial enter- 
prises. This war was a commercial war ; that is, it 
was waged to protect American commerce from the 
exactions and encroachments of England, and was 
fought chiefly on the sea. During the contest New 
York was blockaded by a British fleet ; her com- 
merce was destroyed, and the people lived in con- 
stant dread of an attack. 

Mr. Astor in those days had little time to think of, 
and no chance to aid, his struggling colony on the 
Pacific. But Astoria was soon beyond the reach of 
assistance, having been surrendered on, the 12th of 
December, 18 13, to the British sloop-of-war Raccoon, 
It had, however, previously been sold to an agent of 
the Northwest Company, together with its stock of 
furs and stores, at about half their value ; so that the 
entire loss did not come upon the partners.^ Mr. 
Astor's subsequent enterprises were not of such na- 
tional importance, although they extended to the 
remotest seas. Twenty years before his death he 
retired from commercial ventures, and devoted him- 
self to the care of his real-estate interests, which had 
grown to vast proportions. He developed scholarly 
tastes during these years, one of his contemporaries 
tells us, and at his modest mansion, that stood on the 
block now occupied by the Astor House, delighted 

* For a fuller account of this enterprise the reader is referred to 
Washington Irving's " Astoria." 




JOHN JACOB AbTOR, 



400 



THE STORY OF NEW YORIC, 



to gather the scholars and Hterary men of the day. 
Washington Irving always made his home there 
when in the city ; so did Dr. Joseph C. Cogswell, the 
editor of the New York Review ; Fitz-Green Hal- 
leck, who was in his employ, often dined with him ; 
and in his will he showed his regard for letters by 
setting apart the sum of $350,000 as an endowment 
of the Astor Library. Mr. Astor died in 1848, leav- 
ing a fortune valued at forty millions — the fifth largest 
estate at that time in the world. 





CHAPTER XX. 

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

But despite the presence of great merchants, the 
growth of the city during the first period of freedom 
(1783-18 1 5) was not so great as might have been ex- 
pected. In 1674, when she came permanently under 
the English flag, she had a population of 3,000 ; in 
1783, when she became a free city, she had 23,000 
inhabitants, an average yearly increase under Eng- 
lish rule of 183. By 18 10 this had grown to 95,- 
000, a yearly increase of 2,666. To-day her popula- 
tion, with that of her environs, — Brooklyn and Jersey 
City, — is estimated at 2,600,000, an average yearly 
increase since 18 10 of 32,532. Her comparatively 
slow growth during the first period ws due to a va- 
riety of causes: the disordered condition of Europe, 
the restrictions of England on her commerce, the 
war of 1 81 2, and absence of a great producing tribu- 
tary country. Soon after the war of 1812-15, how- 
ever, three beneficent genii came to her aid, roused 
her to renewed activity, and have since combined to 
make her one of the queen cities of the world. They 
were the steamboat, the canal, and the railway. The 
steamboat came first, — the historic Clermont, — the 
first ever seen in New York waters, — having paddled 

401 



402 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



her way up the Hudson in August, 1807, frightening 
half out of their wits the simple countrymen, who 
thought her some visitant from the infernal regions. 
Her maker was Robert Fulton, one of the greatest 
men of his age ; of humble parentage, — as most great 
men are, — born on a farm in Fulton township, Penn- 




ROBERT FULTON. 



sylvania in the year 1763. A painter of ability, but 
chiefly distinguished for his inventions and discoveries 
in mechanical science. Steamboats, torpedo boats, 
canals and canal boats, the ferry-boats that we now 
use, and the floating docks into which they run with- 
out shock were his most useful inventions. It would 
be more proper to say that he invented a steamboat, 



404 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

for boats propelled by steam had been invented as 
early as 1543, and John Fitch in 1787 had construct- 
ed a steamboat, which made regular trips on the 
Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burling- 
ton. Fulton's design, however, was the first success- 
ful steamboat, and in its essential principles is still 
in use. In making his experiments he was greatly 
aided in both money and advice by two other emi- 
nent Americans, Joel Barlow and Robert R. Living- 
ston, the latter becoming his partner, and advancing 
money for the building of the Clermont^ and securing 
for her the exclusive privilege of navigating the 
waters of New York when she should be finished. 
After many trials and discouragements, the Clermont 
was launched. 

The engraving gives a good idea of her general 
appearance. She was 130 feet long, i6J- feet wide, 
and 4 feet deep. Her steam cylinder was 24 inches 
in diameter, with a four-foot stroke, and her paddle- 
wheels 15 feet in diameter, with paddles, or floats, 2 
feet wide. While the Clermont was being built, 
many witticisms were indulged in at her builder's 
expense. Few believed that heavy boats could be 
propelled against wind and tide by the power of 
steam ; and when it was advertised that the Cler- 
mont would sail for Albany on her trial trip, on the 
morning of August 11, 1807, a great crowd gathered 
on the dock, eager to witness the inventor's discom- 
fiture. They had nothing but sarcastic remarks for 
the man with an idea. 

*' This is the way," wrote Fulton to his friend Mr. 
Barlow, " that ignorant men compliment what they 



COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 405 

call philosophers and projectors." But the voyage 
of the Clermont proved a complete success. She ar- 
rived at Clermont, the country-seat of Mr. Living- 
ston, in twenty-four hours, a distance of no miles, 
and at Albany in eight hours more, making the en- 
tire distance of 150 miles against both wind and tide 
in thirty-two hours, or nearly five miles an hour. 
The return trip was made in thirty hours. '' The 
power of propelling boats by steam is now fully 
proved," wrote Fulton in the letter above quoted. 
And so it was ; for, although between the skeleton 
steamboat of Fulton, and the palatial steamers which 
now ply on the Hudson and the Sound, a great gap 
exists, yet their principle was the same ; while the 
splendid ocean steamers, which have utterly changed 
commercial methods, sprang from the same germ. 
The Clermont at once began running regularly as a 
passenger boat, and, as she made the passage to 
Albany in thirty-two hours, while the packet sloop 
required from four to seven days, she had no lack of 
patronage. Some rival boats were built and put on 
the river, in defiance of the exclusive right to navi- 
gate boats by steam given to Fulton and Livingston. 
By 1809, there was a regular line of steam, packets to 
Albany. In 18 13, there was a tri weekly line, leaving 
New York every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
afternoon. Improvements continued to be made, so 
that, by the year 18 17, the time of passage had been 
reduced to eighteen hours. In 1818, the present 
steamboat service on the Sound was begun — the 
Fulton, under Fulton and Livingston's patent, run- 
ning between New York and New Haven, and the 



4o6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Connecticut^ making regular trips to New London. 
In 1822, the New York and Providence Line was 
organized. By 1830, there were eighty-six steam- 
boats running on New York waters. 

The year before, in 1829, a man came to New 
York who was destined to give a great impetus to 
the business of steamboating. His name was 
Cornelius Vanderbilt, and he had been born at 
Port Richmond, on Staten Island, thirty-five years 
before ; a poor boy, but strong of body and mind, 
ambitious, intent on making his fortune. At six- 
teen, he was master of a sail-boat plying as a ferry 
between Staten Island and New York. At eigh- 
teen, he owned two ferry-boats, and had saved $1,000. 
The possibilities of the steamboat early attracted 
his attention, and in 1817, at the age of twenty- 
three, with $9,000 to his credit, he joined Thomas 
Gibbons, of New Jersey, in building a small steamer, 
The-Mouse-of-the-Mountai7i, to run from New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, to New York ; of this boat he was 
captain, at a salary of $1,000 per year. He was con- 
nected with the Gibbons line for twelve years, and 
when he left it, in 1829, it was paying $40,000 a year. 
But the monopoly of the Hudson and the Sound, 
granted Fulton and Livingston, was now broken, 
and he had a keen ambition to enter that field. He 
removed to New York in 1829, as has been said, and 
soon made his presence felt. The steamboat service 
of the day was wretched. The boats were small and 
slow, the cabins dirty and ill ventilated. Mr. Van- 
derbilt built new boats — larger, faster, with many im- 
provements, and lowered the fares ; and although he 



COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 



407 



had such competitors as Colonel John Stevens Dean 
Richmond, and Daniel Drew, soon distanced them 
all In a few years he had boats runnmg to Albany, 




i'k '^^ *v 




COMMODORE VANDERBILT. 

and to all the important Sound ports. His receipts 
for the first five years were $30,000 per year, and 
later double that. Between 1829 and 1848, he owned 
and operated nearly fifty steamboats, most of which 



408 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

he built himself. The breaking out of the California 
gold excitement drew him into ocean steamship ven- 
tures, and he began a famous contest with the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company for the passenger trafilic to 
California, across the Isthmus of Darien, which ended 
in his being bought off, as there was not trade enough 
for two. In 1855, he established a line of steamers 
to Havre, France — larger, swifter, and more elegant 
than those of the Collins line, then running to Eng- 
land, and which soon became the favorite of travel- 
lers. This line he continued until the breaking out 
of the war in i860. While engaged in ocean naviga- 
tion, he is said to have owned twenty-one steamships, 
ten of which he built. In his later days, Mr. Van- 
derbilt withdrew from shipping, and turned his at- 
tention entirely to railways. He died in New York, 
in 1877.^ 

We have wandered somewhat from our subject. 
Let us return to the second great factor in the city's 
progress — the Erie Canal. The fact that boats could 
be towed by steam-power from Albany to New York, 
no doubt turned men's thoughts to a canal from Al- 
bany west to Buffalo, which should connect the At- 
lantic and the Great Lakes, and give to New York 
the commerce of half a continent. 

Judge Jonas Piatt first brought the project to the 
attention of the Legislature, in 18 10, though it had 

* Readers desiring to study further the genesis of steam navigation 
are referred to Colonel Thomas W. Knox's excellent work, '' The 
Life of Robert Fulton and a History of Steam Navigation," from 
which many of the above facts are derived. 



41 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

been before agitated in the public prints. The plan 
was generally regarded as chimerical, or, if practica- 
ble, as being beyond the resources of the State of 
New York, In the autumn of 1815, however, the 
war being over, the project was revived, the leading 
spirit being De Witt Clinton, nephew of the War 
Governor, Mayor of New York City at the time, and 
subsequently Governor of the State. A meeting of 
merchants and others was held at the City Hall, in 
the autumn of 18 15, and a committee, headed by 
Mayor Clinton, was chosen to prepare a memorial to 
the Legislature on the subject. This memorial was 
written by Mayor Clinton, and was one of the ablest 
and most effective of State papers. In glowing terms 
it depicted the benefits to State and City of the stu- 
pendous plan. It would make tributary the Great 
Lakes and the entire Northwest. Boats laden 
with the crude products of that vast region would 
pass through it in endless procession ; great man- 
ufacturing establishments would spring up ; agri- 
culture would establish its granaries, and com- 
merce its warehouses in all directions ; villages, 
towns, and hamlets would line the banks of the 
canal and the shores of the Hudson. In addition to 
these prophecies — which soon became facts, — plans 
and careful estimates of the cost of the proposed 
work were given, and methods for raising the money 
were suggested. Monster mass-meetings in its favor 
were held along the line of the proposed canal. A 
bill for building it was introduced in the Legislature 
of 1 8 16, and, after a stormy debate, was passed on 
April 17th. On July 4th, of the next year, ground 



COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 41 1 

was broken for the canal at Rome, midway between 
the two termini. The work was so magnificent that 
it awakened intense enthusiasm throughout the 
State. Subscriptions poured in ; most of the right 
of way was given. The sturdy yeomen along the 
line worked with willing hands and patriotic hearts, 
each feeling that every shovelful thrown out brought 
the bridal of the lakes and ocean nearer, and ad- 
vanced the power and glory of his State. In 1820, 
the middle section, from Utica to Rome, ninety-six 
miles, was opened. October i, 1823, the eastern 
section to Albany was completed, and two years 
later the entire canal was declared ready for traffic. 
The herculean task, that its opponents — and they 
were many— declared would tax the resources of the 
nation, had been completed by New York alone in a 
little more than eight years. 

There was more poetry and originality in men's 
natures then, I think; at least, the celebration of 
the opening of the canal was one of the most unique 
and poetic incidents in the history of peoples. There 
was then no telegraph, so they proceeded to invent 
one. They stationed cannon — thirty-two pounders, 
survivors of the Revolution and of the War of 1812 
as far as they could be had— at intervals of eight or 
ten miles along the line of the canal, from Buffalo to 
Albany, and thence along the banks of the Hudson 
to New York and Sandy Hook. And they appointed 
veterans of the wars to man them, too, as far as they 
could obtain them ; the object being to announce to 
New York and the country between, the precise mo- 
ment when the waters of Lake Erie werelet into the 



412 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

canal, and the little fleet of pioneer boats started on 
their journey to the Atlantic. 

The opening day of the grand celebration was ap- 
pointed for October 26, 1825, and, the night before, 
these cannon were loaded with powder and blank 
cartridges, carefully primed, and put in charge of the 
veterans, with strict orders to each to fire as soon as 
he saw the flasb, or heard the roar of the westward 
gun. At ten o'clock precisely, on the morning of 
the 26th, the water was let into the canal, and the 
boats began their journey. Simultaneously the 
signal gun was fired. Its report, taken up by the 
relays of cannon, swept on over the broad reaches of 
the lake basin to Rochester, across the flats of the 
Genesee to Syracuse, over the sixty-seven-mile level 
to Utica, and down the beautiful valley of the Mo- 
hawk to Albany. At 1 1 A.M. precisely, the grim 
old veteran standing to his piece at Castleton caught 
the signal gun from Albany, and sent it thundering 
on to Baltimore. It reached Coxsackie at 11.03; 
Hudson, one minute later; Catskill, Upper Red 
Hook, Rhinebeck, and Hyde Park at moment inter- 
vals. At 11.09 it ^"^^ ^t Poughkeepsie, and the 
eagles on Storm King flapped their wings joyously, 
thinking war had come again. Hamburgh, New- 
burgh, West Point, Fort Montgomery, Stony Point, 
Sing Sing, Closter's Landing, Fort Washington, Fort 
Gansevoort, the Battery, Fort Lafayette, took it up 
in succession, and passed it on, the last station — 
Sandy Hook — receiving it at 11. 21 A.M., twenty-one 
minutes after it left 'Albany, and one hour and 
twenty-one minutes from Buffalo. At twenty-two 




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COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 41 3 

minutes past eleven, Fort Lafayette began the re- 
turn fire with a national salute ; this the Battery 
took up at 1 1.3 1, and so the line of fire sped back as 
it had come to the Great Lakes, reaching Buffalo at 
12.50 P.M., having passed over 1,100 miles in less 
than three hours. Much more poetic and impressive 
seems this roar of cannon than the click of the tele- 
graphic needle. 

The Commercial Advertiser^ in its issue of that 
day, thus announced the event : 

" The work is done. At twenty minutes past eleven 
this morning the joyful intelligence was proclaimed to 
our citizens, by roar of artillery, that the great, the gigan- 
tic work of uniting the upper lakes with the ocean was 
completed, and that exactly an hour and twenty minutes 
before, the first boat from Erie had entered the canal 
and commenced its voyage to New York." 

Let us return to this boat and to Buffalo. At the 
moment of the in-rushing of the lake water, a pro- 
cession of four boats began their journey to New 
York. First came the Seneca Chief, drawn by four 
gray horses elegantly caparisoned, and following her 
the Superior, the Commodore Perry, a freight boat, 
and the Buffalo of Erie. On board was a distin- 
guished company : De Witt Clinton, now Governor 
of the State ; Lieutenant-Governor Tallmadge, the 
New York delegation which had come on to extend 
to the party the hospitalities of the city, and a great 
company of fair women and brave men, — the invited 
guests. As they progressed, it seemed as if the 
entire State of New York had gathered along the 



414 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

line to greet them. At Rochester the canal was 
carried across the Genesee River by a stone aque- 
duct of nine arches, each of fifty feet span. Here 
sentinels, stationed in a small boat to defend the 
entrance, hailed the flotilla, *'Who comes there?" 
''Your brothers from the West on the waters of the 
Great Lakes," was the swift reply, and the dialogue 
continued. " By what means have they been diverted 
so far from their natural course?" — "Through the 
channel of the Grand Erie Canal." — "By whose au- 
thority and by whom was a work of such magnitude 
accomplished ?" and a chorus of voices from the Sen- 
eca Chief answered : " By the authority and by the 
enterprise of the people of the State of New York." 
The sentinel boat then gave way, and the fleet 
proudly entered the spacious basin at the end of the 
aqueduct amid welcoming salutes of artillery and the 
acclamations of thousands. 

Similar demonstrations awaited the procession all 
along the line. At Albany there was a congratu- 
latory address, a public dinner, and a grand illumina- 
tion in the evening. All the steam craft on the 
Hudson had been gathered there to tow the fleet 
down the river. It left Albany on November 2d, 
the brilliant company increased by the addition 
of the corporation of Albany as the invited guests 
of New York. On the morning of the 4th, the 
flotilla came abreast of the Palisades, with the 
city in the distance half concealed by the mel- 
low Indian-summer haze. Before sunrise it anchored 
off the city, and was soon approached by the steamer 
Washington, having the committee of the Common 



COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 415 

Council and officers of the Governor's Guards on 
board, and flying the broad pennant of the Corpora- 
tion. "Where are you from and whither bound ?" 
asked the corporation steamer, as she approached. 
'* From Lake Erie and bound to Sandy Hook," was 
the reply. The Washington then moved alongside 
the Seneca Chief, and the committee boarding her, 
Alderman Coudrey in a graceful speech welcomed 
the visitors to the city. Some hours later the aqua- 
tic procession was formed, and after proceeding to 
the Navy Yard, and taking on board officers and 
other guests, moved out to sea. The spectacle, as 
the vessels were getting into line, is said to have been 
a brilliant and animated one. Hundreds of ships, 
frigates, sloops, steamboats, barges, and other craft 
covered the bay, each bedecked from trucks to keel- 
son with flags and banners, and swarming with human- 
ity, while both shores, the Heights, and the islands 
in the harbor were lined with applauding spectators. 
There were twenty-nine steam vessels of all sorts 
in the line. Occupying the first place was the 
Washington, with the mayor, corporation, and dis- 
tinguished guests on board. The ship Hamlet, char- 
tered by the marine and nautical societies and towed 
by the Oliver Ellsworth, was noticeable for her dis- 
play of the flags of all nations. Another feature, 
described by the old chronicler with fulness of com- 
pliment, was the " safety barges " Lady Clinton and 
Lady Van Rensselaer, towed by the Commerce and 
filled with the fairest daughters of a city renowned 
for fair women ; the former bore Mrs. Clinton, the 
governor's lady, and was hung from stem to stern 



41 6 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

with festoons of evergreen, among which were inter- 
twined roses, china-asters, and other bright-hued 
flowers. The fleet moved down the bay saluted 
with guns from the forts on shore, and from the 
British frigates at anchor, and when nearing the 
Narrows was met by a pilot-boat, which hailed and 
announced that it had been sent by Neptune to 
conduct the fleet to his dominions. The throne of 
Neptune at this moment was the United States 
schooner Porpoise, moored just within Sandy Hook, 
and around which the fleet formed a circle some 
three miles in circumference. A colloquy ensued 
between Neptune on his schooner and the visitors, 
as to the place whence they came and the ob- 
ject of their coming, and when this had been ex- 
plained to his satisfaction the last act in the pretty 
drama was performed. Governor Clinton, manly in 
frame, handsome of face, gallant of spirit, standing 
on the Seneca Chief, took a keg of lake water, which 
had been brought from Buffalo, and holding it aloft 
in full view of all, poured its contents into the briny 
sea, saying : 

" This solemnity, at this place, on the first arrival of 
vessels from Lake Erie is intended to indicate and com- 
memorate the navigable communication which has been 
accomplished between our mediterranean seas and the 
Atlantic Ocean in about eight years, to the extent of 
more than four hundred and twenty-five miles, by the 
wisdom, public spirit, and energy of the people of the 
State of New York ; and may the God of the heavens and 
the earth smile most propitiously on this work and render 
it subservient to the best interests of the human race." 




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41 8 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

Dr. Mitchell then poured into the ocean water 
from the Ganges, Indus, Nile, Thames, and other 
rivers of the world, and the ceremony was complete. 
The fleet then returned to the Battery, where the 
guests disembarked and took part in the land pro- 
cession, which was a splendid and successful affair, 
but so much like the great Federal pageant of 1788, 
that a detailed description is unnecessary. The cor- 
poration further commemorated the day by issuing 
a great number of medals in gold, silver, and white 
metal. There were fifty-one of the gold medals, 
which were enclosed in elegant red morocco cases 
and sent to various monarchs of Europe and to the 
eminent men of our own country. Among the latter 
w^ere the three surviving signers of the Declaration, 
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Carroll 
of Carrollton. 

Thus, the great Erie Canal was opened. Its ben- 
efit to New York has been incalculable. In fact, 
it has been the greatest factor in the city's mar- 
vellous commercial growth, pouring into her lap 
the crude products of a constantly widening area, 
which form the bulk of her exports, and distributing 
to this same region the multitudinous articles com- 
prised in her imports. In 1831, however, a competi- 
tor appeared, which in a few years completely dis- 
tanced the canal as a means of locomotion, and, to 
a great extent, of transportation. In that year the 
first railroad in New York, and one of the first in 
the country, was opened between Albany and Sche- 
nectady. 

A year later, April 24, 1832, the great Erie Rail- 



COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 419 

way — the first trunk line, — designed to open com- 
munication between New York and the Great Lakes, 
was chartered. It was completed to Dunkirk, on 
Lake Erie, in 185 1. Meantime, the Mohawk and 
Hudson (later known as the Albany and Schenec- 
tady) had been pushing westward under various 
names until, by completion of the Buffalo and Lock- 
port Railway in 1854, it formed a continuous line of 
rail from Albany to Buffalo. These various roads 
had been merged into one line in 1853, by the name 
of the New York Central, and that line, by its union, 
in 1869, with the Hudson River Railroad, formed 
the second great trunk line between New York and 
the West. Two years later, in 1871, the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, which had been opened from Phila- 
delphia to Pittsburg in 1854, leased the United 
Railways of New Jersey, and formed the third great 
trunk line. The Baltimore and Ohio, the Delaware 
and Lackawanna, and the West Shore systems have 
since been added. These sev^en great arteries, joined 
to her position and unexcelled harbor, appear to 
assure to New York City the commercial supremacy 
of the world, provided her merchants have the cour- 
age and genius to take advantage of them. To a 
recital of some of their triumphs in the past we can 
well devote another chapter. 



mm 



w 



XXI. 



SHIPS AND SAILORS. 



The first shipping enterprise of moment to New 
York merchants was the founding, in 1816, of the 
famous packet service between New York and 
Liverpool, and which contributed not a Httle to the 
glory of American shipbuilders and merchants. The 
merchantmen of that day were also passenger ships. 
They were clumsy, slow sailers, dingy and shabby in 
their passenger appointments, and without stated 
time of sailing, leaving at hap-hazard, whenever their 
cargoes were complete. By and by, it occurred to 
certain shrewd merchants of New York — Isaac 
Wright and Son, Francis Thompson, Benjamin Mar- 
shall, and Jeremiah Thompson — that a line of ships 
unrivalled for strength, speed, and beauty, and with 
a regular schedule of sailings, would soon drive the 
old merchantmen from the trade. They therefore 
founded the famous " Black Ball Line," still a foun- 
tain of happy memories to the old merchants and 
sea-captains, who haunt the shipping-offices about 
Burling Slip and South Street, and talk of past 
glories. There were four packets of this line at 
first, subsequently increased to twelve, each a thing 
of beauty, and a joy to the American heart ; one of 

420 



SHIPS AND SAILORS. 42 1 

them sailed regularly on the 1st of every month. 
They were so successful that, in 182 1, a rival Liver- 
pool line — the Red Star — was established by Byrnes, 
Grimble, & Co., with four ships^ — Manhattan, Hercules, 
Panther and Meteor, and sailing on the 24th of every 
month. Stimulated by this competition, the pro- 
prietors of the Black Ball Line added four new ves- 
sels, and advertised a sailing on the 1st and i6th of 
every month. Then began an era of shipbuilding : 
Fish, Grinnell, & Co., and Thaddeus Phelps, & Co., 
founded the Swallow-Tail Line — so called from its 
forked pennant, — with departures on the 8th of every 
month, and the city papers proudly announced that 
New York had the exclusive and distinguished priv- 
ilege of a fast weekly service to Liverpool. These 
packets were noble ships, of from 600 to 1,500 tons 
each, and made the run from New York to Liver- 
pool in twenty-three days, and the return trip in 
forty. Once the Canada, of the Black Ball Line, 
beat the record by making the outward voyage in 
fifteen days and eighteen hours. 

Li 1823 a London Line was established by Grin- 
nell, Minturn, & Co., with sailings every month. A 
line of packets to Havre, France, was also estab- 
lished, about 1822, by Francis Depau, with four 
ships. These various lines of packets aided greatly 
in building up the city. They shortened and 
cheapened communication between her and Europe, 
and they drove the clumsy French and English 
traders from the seas, thus throwing the carrying 
trade into American bottoms. They also proved 
mines of wealth to their captains, agents, and build- 



422 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

ers, — for each owned a share ; the captain usually an 
eighth, the builder another eighth, the agent an 
eighth, the rigger another fraction — that all might 
have an interest in the success of the voyage. 
Gradually larger and finer vessels were built, the 
Palestine and Amazon of i,8oo tons each being the 
largest as well as the last of their race. It is a tra- 
dition of South Street that the latter had once made 
the voyage to Portsmouth, England, in fourteen 
days — a great feat for a sailing vessel, although 
the Independence, the Montezuma, the Patrick Henry, 
and the Southampton had performed the voyage to 
Liverpool in the same period. The packets remained 
in commission until the war of i860 drove American 
ships from the ocean. Some were utilized as trans- 
ports, some were sunk in Southern harbors to block- 
ade them, a few may still be seen at our wharves. 
As fine specimens of naval architecture, however, 
the packet ships were quite thrown in the shade by 
the Canton and California clippers of 1840-55. The 
clipper ships originated in Baltimore^ about 1 840, 
in answer to the demands of the China tea trade. 
Merchants found that tea deteriorated in quality 
with every day spent on the ocean — besides a cargo 
was of such great value that every day saved repre- 
sented quite an item in interest and insurance — 
hence the demand for swift ships. The first clippers 

* So states Mr. F. C. Sanford, of Nantucket, an authority on 
American ships and shipbuilding. Mr. Sheldon, in his article on 
" The Old Packet and Clipper Service " {Harper's, January, 1884), 
says that the first clipper was William H. Aspinwall's Rainbow, 
built about 1843 by Smith and Dimon. 



424 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

built in New York were for those famous China 
merchants, William H. Aspinwall, N. L. & G. 
Griswold, and A. A. Low & Brother, and were 
small, swift vessels of from 600 to 900 tons burthen. 
In 1849, however, came the California gold excite- 
ment and brought at once the golden age of the 
clipper service. For one half the distance to China 
— San Francisco — a return cargo could be secured. 
This comprised bulky articles, passengers' baggage, 
provisions, machinery of the mines, etc., and created 
a demand for larger ships. This brought into exist- 
ence those triumphs of the shipbuilder's art — the 
Challenge, of 2,000 tons, built by William Webb 
in 1851 for N. L. & G. Griswold; the Invincible, 
of 2,150 tons; the Comet, of 1,209 tons; and the 
Sword Fish, of 1,150 tons. Other famous sea rovers 
followed : the Tornado, the Flying Cloud, the Black 
Squall, the Sovereign of tJie Seas, and others, so that 
of the 157 vessels of all grades that entered San 
Francisco in 1852, 70 were clippers. Mr. Sheldon, 
in his article before referred to, has given so spirited 
an account of the exploits of the clippers that we 
copy it as the best that can be said on the subject : 

" That clipper epoch was an epoch to be proud of. 
And we were proud of it. The New York newspapers 
abounded in such head-lines in large type as these : 
' Quickest Trip on Record,' ' Shortest Passage to San 
Francisco,' 'Unparalleled Speed,' 'Quickest Voyage 
Yet,' 'A Clipper as Is a Clipper,' 'Extraordinary De- 
spatch,' 'The Quickest Voyage to China,' 'The Contest 
of the Clippers,' 'Great Passage from San Francisco," 
*Race Round the World.' The clipper ship Surprise, 



SHIPS AND SAILORS. 425 

built in East Boston by Mr. Hall, and owned by A. A. 
Low & Bro., having sailed to San Francisco in ninety- 
six days — then the shortest time on record (Mr. W. H. 
Aspinwall's Sea Witch had run the course in ninety-seven 
days) — a San Francisco journal said : ' One of our most 
distinguished merchants made a bet with a friend some 
weeks since that the Surprise would make the passage in 
ninety-six days — just the time she has consumed to a 
day. Yesterday morning, full of confidence, he mounted 
his old nag, and rode over to the north beach to get the 
first glimpse of the looked-for clipper. The fog, how- 
ever, was rather thick outside, and after looking awhile 
he turned back to town, but had not arrived at his count- 
ing-room before he heard that the Surprise had passed 
the Golden Gate, and by eleven o'clock Captain Dumar- 
esq was in his old friend's counting-room on Sansome 
Street, She has brought 1,800 tons of cargo, which may 
be estimated at a value of $2oo,coo. Her manifest is 
twenty-five feet long.' Her greatest run was 284 miles 
in twenty-four hours, and she reefed her topsails but 
twice during the voyage of 16,308 miles. She soon left 
San Francisco for London, by way of Canton, and on 
reaching the English capital her receipts for freights had 
entirely paid her cost and running expenses, besides net- 
ting her owners a clear profit of $50,000. At Canton her 
freight for London was engaged at £6 sterling a ton, 
while the English ships were taking their freight at £,^ 
and £^ a ton ; and this was the second season that the 
preference had been given to American ships at advanced 
rates, their shorter passages enabling shippers to receive 
prompt returns from their investments, to save interest, 
and to secure an early market. 'If ships,' said a Cali- 
fornia newspaper, ' can be built to make such trips as this, 
steamers for long passages will be at a discount. Cali- 



426 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

fornia has done much toward the commencement of a 
new era in shipbuilding when the heavy, clumsy models 
of past days have given way to the new and beautiful 
one of the Surprise and others of the same build.' * The 
Calif ornians,' said a New York newspaper, 'are in ecsta- 
sies over our clipper ships, which come and depart like 
so many winged Pegasuses. There are now on the way 
to the Pacific, and ready to start for that portion of the 
world, as splendid vessels as the eye ever rested upon, 
and commanded by men whose knowledge of their pro- 
fession cannot be excelled, and each determined to do 
his utmost to be first in this clipper contest.' 

*' The whole country, indeed, was stirred by the beauty, 
the speed, and the triumphs of these American clippers. 
The Houqua, Captain Daniel McKenzie, built by Brown, 
& Bell for A. A. Low & Bro., made the trip from Shang- 
hai to New York, in 1850, in eighty-eight days, then the 
shortest ever made between these ports. The Samuel 
Russell, Captain N. B. Palmer, owned by the same firm, 
sailed in one day in 1851, on her voyage home from 
Whampoa, China, 318 miles, or thirteen and a quarter 
miles an hour, — a speed greater than had been obtained 
by any ocean steamer. For thirty days in succession, 
from the 8th of November to the 7th of December, she 
averaged 226 miles a day, covering in that period 6,722 
miles, or one half the entire distance between China and 
New York. On another occasion, while going to Canton, 
she sailed 328 miles in one day. ' Now, sir,' wrote one 
of her skippers, ' I humbly submit if that is not a feat to 
boast of — if that is not an achievement to entitle a ship 
to be classed among clippers } ' On her return voyage 
she had the honor of reporting in New York the news of 
her own arrival at Canton. The Flying Cloud, 1,782 tons, 
built by Donald McKay, of East Boston, commanded by 



SHIPS AND SAILOJ^S. 427 

Cajptain Josiah P. Creesy, of Marblehead, went, in 185 1, 
to San Francisco from New York in eighty-four days — 
the fastest trip ever made by a sailing vessel, and twelve 
days shorter than that of the Sitrprise. Lieutenant 
Maury, of the United States Naval Observatory at Wash- 
ington, reported that the greatest distance ' ever per- 
formed from noon to noon on the ocean was 433/4^ stat- 
ute miles, by the clipper ship Flying Cloud, in her cele- 
brated passage ' of eighty-four days from New York to 
San Francisco, 'which yet stands unequalled,' The 
Northern Light, of Boston, left San Francisco on the 13th 
of March, 1853, and reached Boston on the 29th of May 
following, thus sailing more than i6,oco miles in seventy- 
seven days, an average of over 200 miles a day. Splen- 
did is the record of the Sovereign of the Seas, commanded 
by Captain L. McKay, and built by his brother Donald 
McKay. This noble vessel left New York for San Fran- 
cisco in August, 1 85 1, with freight, for carrying which 
she would receive $84,000 — a marvellous sum to-day — a 
barrel of flour on her arrival selling for $44, and when 
off Valparaiso in a storm was dismasted, every thing 
above the mast-heads of her fore- and main-masts being 
carried away. In fourteen days she was rigged at sea, 
and proceeding on her way to California, reached her des- 
tination in 102 days from New York, in spite of the acci- 
dent and detention — the best passage ever made at that 
season of the year. Seventy feet of her fore-mast and 
main-mast were gone, and also four sails on each mast. 
Having discharged her cargo, the clipper sailed for Hon- 
olulu, and loaded with oil for New York, which she 
reached in eighty-two days — a passage never equalled. 
For 10,000 miles she sailed without tacking or wearing, 
and in ten consecutive days she made 3,300 miles. Load- 
ing again immediately for Liverpool, she left on a Satur- 



428 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

day, the 1 8th of June, 1852. On Sunday, the 26th, she was 
becalmed on the Banks of Newfoundland ; but at mid- 
night a breeze sprung up, and on the following Saturday, 
at 5 o'clock P.M., she dropped anchor in the Mersey — 
another passage never equalled. She had sailed from 
the Banks to Liverpool in about five days and a half, and 
from New York to Liverpool in the unprecedented time 
of thirteen days and nineteen hours. One day she sailed 
340 miles ; on the same day the Cunard steamer Canada^ 
which had left Boston almost simultaneously with the 
Sovereign of the Seas, made only 306 miles. To-day, 
thirty years afterward, it is enlivening to read in the 
newspapers of that time the editorial articles on the splen- 
did performances of that splendid ship. But her story is 
not told yet. On the loth of May, 1853, Lieutenant M. 
F. Maury reported to the Hon. James C. Dobbin, Secre- 
tary of the Navy, that the clipper-ship Sovereign of the 
Seas, 2,421 tons, on a voyage from San Francisco, had 
made 'the enormous run of 6,245 i^iles ' in twenty-two 
days, a daily average of 238.9 miles, and that the greatest 
distance traversed from noon of one day to the noon of 
the next day was 419 miles. After his illustrious per- 
formances on the ocean. Captain McKay is now a ship- 
ping merchant in South Street, New York City. His 
brother, Donald McKay, the builder, died some time 
since in Boston. For the meritorious work of rigging his 
vessel at sea when dismasted off Valparaiso, Captain Mc- 
Kay was presented by Walter R. Jones, president of the 
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, on behalf of the 
underwriters, with a massive and costly silver dinner 
service. 

" Captain Samuel Samuels became famous in the clipper 
Dreadnought, and it used to be said that with a strong 
wind nothing ever passed her, — not even a steamer. 



430 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

Built in Newburyport for Governor E. D, Morgan, Cap- 
tain Samuels, and others, she was named after the famous 
vessel in Admiral Nelson's fleet, her owners sending to 
England to get the right spelling of the name, which they 
found to be Dreadnought, and not Dreadnaught. Her 
keel was laid in June, 1853, and her first return trip from 
Liverpool made in February, 1854. On that voyage she 
scudded into celebrity by reaching Sandy Hook as soon 
as the Cunard steamer Canada, which had left Liverpool 
one day earlier, reached Boston. In 1859 she made the 
3,000 miles from Sandy Hook to Rock Light, Liverpool, 
in thirteen days and eight hours ; and in i860 went from 
Sandy Hook to Queenstown, 2,760 miles, in the unequal- 
led sailing time of nine days and seventeen hours. How 
often a first-class steamship has been longer in going the 
same distance ! " 

Such were some of the triumphs of our early ma- 
rine ; and how galling to national pride the contrast 
between that day and this ! In 1853, American ships 
securing cargoes in English home ports amid the 
fiercest competition. In 1888, almost every pound 
of America's exports afloat in British bottoms, and 
scarcely an American vessel in commission in the 
foreign trade. 





XXII. 

MINOR EVENTS — 1 784- 1860. 

Some minor events of interest in the period passed 
over remain to be noticed. 

Soon after the close of the war, in May, 1784, 
King's College was re-chartered by the State of New 
York, under the title Columbia. It cannot be said 
to have been fairly reorganized, however, until 1787, 
when the first president under the new regime, Will- 
iam Samuel Johnson, was elected. He was a son of 
Dr. Johnson, the first president of King's, an able 
and scholarly man. De Witt Clinton, later famous in 
the annals of the State, was the first student. The 
college buildings continued on the original site until 
1857, when they were found to be too far downtown, 
and the present site, between Madison and Fourth 
Avenues and Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth streets, was 
chosen. 

In 1790, the new Trinity Church, built on the site 
of the one burned in 1776, was dedicated with ap- 
propriate ceremonies. Washington and his family 
were present in the pew set apart for the President's 
use ; many other high officers of government were 
also present. 

The city treasurer at this time was Daniel Phce- 

431 



432 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



nix, an eminent merchant and shrewd financier. 
During his term of office, the city issued the paper- 
money shown below— the first instance, we beheve, 







^^ !l Fromifi'io fay i he Bearer^ ^"28 
^w, Vimandt One ?enr/. ^y Or^aferS^ 
5 ■ ^ yA* Corporation of tht City y*^"^ sJ 
ftW isJew-York. February ^o J79O. *TJ^ 

PENNY CURRENCY — 1790. 

of the issue of such currency by the corporation, 
although as early as 177 1 the colony had issued 
ten-, five-, and two-pound notes, which became a cir- 
culating medium. 



MINOR EVENTS. 433 

The decade between 1800 and 18 10 was marked 
by a growing interest in letters and in art. In 
1804, the New York Historical Society was founded 




WASHINGTON IRVING. 



by Mayor De Witt Clinton, Judge Egbert Benson, 
and others. Four years later, in 1808, the American 
Academy of Fine Arts was incorporated, with Chan- 



434 ^^^^ S7^0J?y OF new york. 

cellor Livingston as president, and the famous pain- 
ter, John Trumbull, as vice-president. In 1809, 
'' The History of New York," by Diedrich Knick- 
erbocker, appeared, and was received with the great- 
est favor and enthusiasm. Busy merchants and 
lawyers read it by chapters in the pauses of busi- 
ness. Grave magistrates are even said to have 
taken it upon the bench with them. Sir Walter 
Scott, after reading it, wrote to a friend in New 
York that he had never seen any thing so closely re- 
sembling the style of Dean Swift as the annals of 
Diedrich Knickerbocker. Some pains were taken 
to preserve the secret of its authorship, but it soon 
leaked out that the author was a briefless barrister of 
the city — one Washington Irving — but twenty-six 
years of age, and who had never written any thing 
of note before, save some bright pieces in the Morn- 
ing Chronicle, and in a weekly journal called Salma- 
gundi, which made its appearance in 1807, ^^"'^ "^^^^ 
edited and written chiefly by our author and his 
friend, James Kirke Paulding. 

In 1812, the present City Hall, having been nine 
years in building, was completed. The same year 
war against Great Britain was declared, and the re- 
sources of the city were taxed to their utmost in 
raising troops, and fortifying her harbor against an 
expected attack by the British fleet. Within four 
months after the declaration of war, she also equipped 
and sent to sea twenty-six privateers, carrying 212 
guns, and 2,239 rn^i'^- I^^ ^813? her harbor was 
blockaded by British war-vessels, and continued to 
be with more or less thoroughness until the treaty 



436 THE STORY OF NEW YORK,^ 

of peace at Ghent, December 24, 18 14, put an end to 
the war. 

Nearly all the victories of that war were gained 
on the ocean. On August 19, 1812, Commodore 
Isaac Hull, in the frigate Constitution^ encoun- 
tered the British frigate Guerriere, off the mouth 
of the St. Lawrence River, and in a gallant action 
of fifteen minutes, captured his enemy. Six days 
before. Commodore David Porter, in the Essex, 
had captured the British sloop-of-war Alert, in an 
action lasting eight minutes. October 18th, of the 
same year, John Paul Jones, in the little Wasp, cap- 
tured the British sloop-of-war Frolic, and this was 
followed on the 25th by the capture of the British 
war frigate Macedonian by the frigate United States, 
under command of Commodore Decatur. New 
York honored the heroes of these victories. Her 
citizens presented swords to Commodore Hull and 
his ofificers. The corporation ordered for the Com- 
modore a richly embossed gold box, on which was 
engraved a picture of the action between the Consti- 
tution and Guerriere, and also asked him to sit for 
the portrait which now graces the Governor's Room 
in the City Hall. And on the 26th of December, 
at the moment that Commodore William Bain- 
bridge was adding another leaf to American naval 
laurels by his capture of the Java, off the Brazil 
coast, the citizens of New York gave a grand ban- 
quet in honor of the heroes, Hull, Jones, and Decatur. 
Five hundred guests sat down at the tables, which 
were spread in the City Hotel, on Broadway near 
Trinity Church, a famous hostelry of that day. 



MINOR EVENTS. 437 

Mayor De Witt Clinton presided, with Decatur on 
his right hand and Hull on his left. The room was 
" colonnaded round with the masts of ships entwined 
with laurel and bearing the flags of all the world." 
A miniature ship, flying the American flag at mast- 
head, was placed upon each table, and, covering one 
side of the room, was the main-sail of a ship, 33 x 16 
feet, which was drawn back as the third toast, '' Our 
Navy," was drunk, and revealed an immense trans- 
parency on which the three battles of Hull, Jones, 
and Decatur were depicted. Many patriotic toasts 
were drunken after this, and many patriotic speeches 
made in reply to them. Banquet songs, praising the 
achievements of American sailors, were also sung. 
A few weeks later — January 7, 18 13, — at the same 
place, Decatur's gallant crew were honored with a 
banquet. Another red-letter day of this period was 
that on which Decatur, in the victorious United States^ 
with the conquered Macedonian in his train, came 
sweeping through the Sound and East River into port. 
Thousands covered the river banks, the docks, the 
buildings, and shipping, and cheer after cheer mingled 
with the thunder of cannon in greeting the victors. 

At the close of the War of 18 12, New York con- 
tained about one hundred thousand people.* Her 
rapid progress northward toward Kingsbridge, level- 
ling the crags and filling the vales as she advanced, 
dates from this period. Then it was that old citi- 
zens, returning after a few years' residence abroad, 
found her transformed. Marble palaces and temples 
stood on the site of former goat pastures. Crags 

* The census of 18 14 gave her ninety-two thousand. 



438 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

and hills were levelled, ponds and marshes filled up. 
In the map of 1804, it will be seen that, at that 
time, Grand Street, west of Broadway, was far out of 
town, and that, on the east, the city was solidly 
built up but one block above it. 

The Collect (marked 35 on the map) still lay in 
placid beauty, scene of boating parties in summer 
and of skating frolics in winter. As the city crept 
toward it (and, indeed, some time after it had leaped 
the low, flat marshes along the line of what is now 
Canal Street) many plans for removing the pond 
were broached and discussed. Some proposed 
draining it by a canal along the present Canal Street 
from the East to the North River ; others advocated 
filling its bed with rocks and clean earth exca- 
vated in the process of removing the crags above. 
The former expedient was at length adopted ; com- 
mencing in 1809 ^ drainage canal was dug through 
the marshes, and a street laid out on either side, 
street and canal forming a spacious thoroughfare one 
hundred feet broad, and which naturally took the 
name of Canal Street. A double row of shade trees 
were set out along the canal, and the street was for 
years one of the finest in the city. But before this 
was accomplished, the city line had advanced far up 
the island, and by 1825 had reached Astor Place. I 
cannot better indicate the transformation since that 
day than by repeating the reminiscences of a gentle- 
man born nearly eighty years ago in this city, in- 
dulged in one mellow autumn day, as we rode slowly 
down Broadway from Astor Place : 

"In 1825," he began, "all north of Astor Place was 



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^ Old j^re^dyleiiari. ^ 

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looo 




MINOR EVENTS. 439 

Open country, a region of farms and farm-houses, gar- 
dens, and apple orchards. An old high-peaked barn 
stood on the present site of Grace Church, and above, 
quite up to the powder-house (now Union Square), there 
were but two dwellings, as I remember, old stone farm- 
houses with attics. Lafayette Place was not, and near 
where the Astor Library now stands, extending through 
from the Bowery to Broadway, and south nearly to Bond 
Street, was the Vauxhall Garden, a delightful spot, with 
flowers, and lawns, and shade trees, where the New 
Yorkers of 1825 resorted to see the fireworks, partake 
of cakes and ale, and hear the band play on summer 
evenings. Nearly opposite, in the triangular-shaped 
park formed by the intersection of Third and Fourth 
Avenues, stood Peter Cooper's grocery store, and more 
than one quart of blackberries have I exchanged there 
for the seductive taffy or bunch of raisins. 

" Bleecker Street was my great blackberry preserve 
when a boy," he said, as we came opposite that thorough- 
fare. " What luscious berries grew beside the walls on 
either side, and roses — no such roses bloom nowadays ! 
Upper Broadway was then a country road : by 1830, 
however, lower Broadway had become almost as crowded 
and noisy as now. I remember that when the Broadway 
stages were first put on — about 1830 I think — they were 
very popular and multiplied beyond calculation. Rival 
stage companies were quickly organized, and the street 
was filled with their vehicles. Jams at the corner of 
Fulton and Broadway were frequent, and what with the 
shouting of the drivers and hoarse commands of the 
policemen were very amusing. The street venders then 
were quite as numerous as now, and, I think, more pic- 
turesque and interesting. Some bore trays containing 
baked pears swimming in molasses, which they offered for 



440 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

sale ; others sold hot corn. The sandman was a verity 
in those days. The bar-rooms, restaurants, and many of 
the kitchens had sanded floors, and men in long white 
frocks with two-wheeled carts, peddling Rockaway sand, 
were familiar objects on the streets. Then there were 
the darkeys who sold bundles of straw for filling the 
beds, and an old blind man who sold door-mats made of 
picked tar rope. I knew a man in those days who ac- 
quired quite a fortune by peddling pure spring water 
about the city at two cents a pail. Sometimes we crossed 
the ferry to visit friends in Brooklyn. You would laugh 
at the ferry-boats of my earlier years. They had open 
decks with an awning stretched over them, and benches 
around the sides, and were propelled by horse power. 
From four to sixteen horses were required, and they 
walked around a shaft in the centre of the boat, turn- 
ing it as sailors turn a capstan, and this shaft by gearing 
turned the paddle-wheels." 

As we came to City Hall Park my friend's ani- 
mation and interest increased. 

" The City Hall," he said, '' then only a few years built, 
stood between two prisons, the Bridewell and the Gaol. 
On the Chambers Street side of the park were three 
buildings, all under one roof. Nearest Broadway was 
the American Museum, a great favorite with the little 
people of that day ; then the Academy of Fine Arts^ and 
last the Almshouse, the artist and showman of that day 
being not far from the almshouse in more senses than 
one. Next, still going east, you came to the Rotunda of 
John Vanderlyn. Vanderlyn, you remember, had been 
discovered by Colonel Burr in an interior town, covering 
his master's blacksmith shop with charcoal sketches, and 
had been sent by Burr to Paris and Rome for instruction 




BROADWAY STAGES, 



MINOR EVENTS, 44 1 

in art. His ' Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage ' had 
taken the prize at Paris under Napoleon, and he returned 
to New York comparatively famous. The city, thinking 
to do somethmg for American art, built the Rotunda, 
and gave Vanderlyn the lease of it for a studio, and for 
the exhibition of his pictures. He showed there his ' Ma- 
rius,' 'Ariadne,' and the * Garden of Versailles,' the lat- 
ter a panorama taking up two sides of the room. 

" I could give you a volume of reminiscences about 
the old American Museum. It had been removed to the 
site of the present Herald building, and had ruined 
several owners, when P. T. Barnum got hold of it, and 
made a success of it. The fashionable place of amuse- 
ment in my day was the Old Park Theatre, which stood 
on the south side of the park, near the site of the present 
World hvW^riig. I have seen there Edmund Kean and 
Charles Matthews, the great actors of that day. The 
Old Park Theatre w^as burned on the morning of the 25th 
of May, 1820, but John Jacob Astor and John K. Beek- 
man rebuilt, on the old site, in 1 820-1, a much handsomer 
building. The park was a beautiful place in those days, 
with its flowers, and trees, and well-kept lawns. Tam- 
many Hall, the cradle of the present powerful organiza- 
tion, was on the east, on the corner of Frankfort Street. 
Aaron Burr had an office in the Hall. The south side of 
the square, where now are the great newspaper offices, 
was then covered with low, one-story buildings — cigar- 
stores, beer saloons, and the like. The modern giants of 
the press had not been thought of. I have seen them 
grow from infancy. The Su7i was founded first, in 1833 ; 
next, the Herald^ in 1835 ; the Tribune^ in 1841 ; the 
Times ^ in 1851 ; and the World, in i860." 

My friend was loth to leave the spot, so many 



442 THE STORY OF NEW YORK, 

associations were connected with it. We passed 
Wall Street and Trinity Church, with their stirring 
and patriotic memories, and came out upon the 
Battery. 

''This," said he, "is another historic place, and ought 
to be reclaimed. How absurd to give the fairest, 
breeziest spot in the city to emigrants, who could much 
better be accommodated at Communipaw. When I was 
young," he continued, " the Battery was the fashionable 
promenade. Castle Garden then was a frowning fort, 
with black muzzles of guns looking seaward through em- 
brasures eight feet thick. The fort is there still, though 
few people know it. In those days we called it Fort 
Clinton. It was built about 1807, when the attacks of 
England on our commerce made it evident that we 
should have to whip her again to secure decent treat- 
ment. Later it was turned into a summer garden, and 
entertainments were held there. Here Jenny Lind, 
under the auspices of the great Barnum, made her debut 
in this country. I remember it perfectly. She arrived 
on September i, 1850, by the Collins Line steamer At- 
lantic^ and gave her first concert on Wednesday, Septem- 
ber nth, and a second on the 13th. Four thousand 
people crowded into the garden to hear her sing." 

We walked eastward towards the Staten Island 
Ferry-house. 

" It was from the Battery," he continued, "that Wash- 
ington took boat for Paulus Hook on his way to Virginia, 
and here we received Lafayette on his second visit to 
this country in 1824. He came on the French packet 
Cadmus, and was met off Staten Island by a delegation 
of the City Fathers, headed by oar handsome, courtly 



444 ^-^-^ STORY OF NEW YORK, 

Mayor William Paulding. Next day was made a fete 
day in his honor. From twelve to one the bells rang 
merry peals. No travel or traffic was allowed on Broad- 
way below Chambers Street. At nine o'clock, the Cor- 
poration of the city, the Chamber of Commerce, the offi- 
cers of th-e army and navy, and the Society of the 
Cincinnati proceeded to Staten Island and escorted to 
the city the man whom the American people delighted 
to honor. The cortege landed at Castle Garden upon a 
carpeted stairway, above which sprang an arch richly 
decorated with laurel and the flags of all nations. I re- 
member Lafayette — a small, delicate man, — and the 
shouts of thousands and the salutes of artillery that 
greeted him. In a few moments he entered a carriage, 
to which four horses were attached, and proceeded up 
Broadway to the City Hall, where he was formally wel- 
comed by Mayor Paulding. A public illumination in 
the evening completed the ceremonies." 










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XXIII. 

NEW YORK IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

When war threatened, in the exciting days of 
1 860-6 1, the voice of New York was for peace. As 
a commercial community, she was, from the nature 
of things, conservative — averse to change. Debts to 
the amount of millions of dollars were due her at the 
South. War would confiscate every dollar. So as 
the irrepressible conflict drew near, her merchants 
made serious efforts to ward it off, — to effect a com- 
promise, patch up a peace. On January 12, 1861, a 
memorial, signed by hundreds of her business men, 
was sent to Congress, praying that the pending dif- 
ficulties might be settled on the basis of the Critten- 
den compromise. On the 1 8th, another memorial, 
with 40,000 names attached, praying for a peaceable 
solution of the difficulties, was endorsed by a meet- 
ing held in the Chamber of Commerce, and forwarded 
to Washington. A mass-meeting was held at Cooper 
Institute, at which three delegates were appointed 
to confer with the delegates of the six States that 
had seceded, with a view to healing the breach, and 
a Peace Society, with the venerable Prof. S. F. B. 
Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, at its head, 
was formed, with the same object in view. Mean- 

445 



44^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

time, Fernando Wood, the Mayor of the city, had 
broached his plan for erecting New York into a free 
and independent State. His words seem to us iron- 
ical, but they were uttered soberly — so infectious 
was the heresy of secession. In a message to the 
Common Council, dated January 7, 1861, he wrote: 

" Why should not New York City, instead of support- 
ing by her contributions in revenues, two thirds of the 
expenses of the United States, become also equally in- 
dependent ? As a free city, with but a nominal duty on 
imports, her local government could be supported with- 
out taxes upon her people. Thus we could live free 
from taxes, and have cheap goods nearly duty free. . . . 
When disunion has become a fixed and certain fact, why 
may not New York disrupt the bonds which bind her to 
a corrupt and venal master ? " and so on. 

But the brilliant reasoner failed to carry his argu- 
ment to its logical conclusion : for if the state had a 
right to secede from the nation, and the city from 
the state, then the ward could secede from the city, 
the district from the ward, and each family could set 
up a government of its own ; and so there would be 
an end, not only of the nation, the state, and the 
city, but of all law, order, and government. Yet 
the Common Council thought so well of this very 
illogical message, that they ordered three thousand 
copies printed for general circulation. At length, on 
April 1 2th, Fort Sumter was fired on. The stars 
and stripes bowed to the palmetto. In a moment 
the current of popular feeling in New York was 
turned. The feeling of citizenship, of nationality, 



NEIV YORK' IN THE CIVIL WAR. 447 

revived The old flag had been fired on, and 
Democrats vied with Republicans in sentiments 
of patriotism and loyalty. At a great mass-meet- 
ing held in Union Square, on April 20th, Mayor 
Fernando Wood, in an eloquent speech, declared 
with Jackson, that " the Union must and should be 
preserved." * The air was surcharged with patriot- 
ism and military ardor. Fife, drum, and bugle, 
troops mustering in the armories, parading on the 
squares, tenting in the parks, marching rank on rank 
through the streets to embark for the front, were the 
daily sights and sounds all through the bright spring 
days of t86i. Bryant, the honored poet of New 
York, voiced the general sentiment, when he wrote : 

" Lay down the axe, fling by the spade, 
Leave in its track the toiling plough. 
The rifle and the bayonet blade 
For arms like yours are fitter now. 
And let the hands that ply the pen 
Quit the light task, and learn to wield 
The horseman's crooked brand, and rein 
The charger on the battle-field." 

The Seventh Regiment, Colonel Lefferts, the pride 
of the city, was the first to leave, embarking on 
April 19th. Next day three more gallant regiments 
— the Sixth, Colonel Pinckney ; the Twelfth, Colonel 
Butterworth ; and the Seventy-first, Colonel Vosburg, 
marched away. In ten days New York City alone 
had sent 8,000 men to the front. To care for these 
troops and their families, and aid the government in 
its work, it was quickly seen that organized effort 

* Putnam's " Rebellion Record," vol. I., page 89 of Documents. 



44^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

would be necessary, and on April 20th — the day 
after the Seventh left for the front — at a grand mass- 
meeting held in Union Square a Committee of 
Safety was appointed to organize a Union Defence 
Committee. Of the latter committee Hon. John A. 
Dix, recently a member of President Buchanan's 
cabinet, was made chairman ; William M. Evarts, 
subsequently Secretary of State, secretary ; and 
Theodore Dehon, treasurer, while the most promi- 
nent citizens were enrolled as members. This com- 
mittee performed excellent service. During the 
war it aided in organizing and equipping forty-nine 
regiments comprising about 40,000 men, and dis- 
bursed a million of dollars in caring for the troops 
and their families. 

While the patriotic sons of New York were march- 
ing to battle, the loyal women of the city were 
asking what they could do for their comfort and 
relief in sickness, or when suffering from wounds. 
Some of them applied to the Rev. Henry W. 
Bellows, a leading Unitarian clergyman of the 
city, for advice, and, at his suggestion, a meet- 
ing was called late in April, 1861, at which a Cen- 
tral Relief Association was organized. To give the 
movement wider scope a public meeting was held 
at Cooper Institute on the 29th, which was addressed 
by Vice-President Hamlin and others. At this 
meeting an organization called The Women's Central 
Relief Association was formed, which soon had 
branch societies in every one of the Northern States. 
But the ladies soon found that they needed govern- 
rhent sanction and authority in their work, and so, 



NEW YOKA' IX THE CIVIL WAR. 449 

on the 6tli of June following, the Secretary of War 
appointed a commission of six competent <^entlemen, 
with Dr. Bellows at its head, " for inquiry and 
advice in respect to the sanitary needs of the United 
States forces." This commission was called the 
United States Sanitary Commission. The ladies 
worked under its authority. They held ** sanitary 
fairs" in all the great cities, which yielded immense 
sums, and they collected private contributions of 
money, clothing, delicacies, lint, bandages, and other 
supplies for the hospitals. The New York branch 
alone is said to have sent to the army $15,000,000 in 
supplies and $5,000,000 in money. The same year, 
at the suggestion of Mr. Vincent Colyer, a well- 
known artist, the Christian Commission was organ- 
ized in New York, and soon spread throughout the 
country, its object being to attend to the moral and 
spiritual welfare of the soldiers. Meantime Miss 
Dorothea L. Dix had offered herself to government 
for gratuitous service in the hospitals, and became 
the leader of a noble band of devoted and patriotic 
women, who in this way served their country quite 
as effectively as their brothers who bore the musket 
and girded on the sword. It was a great honor to 
New York to have originated the Sanitary Com- 
mission, the Christian Commission, and the Ameri- 
can Order of Florence Nightingales. 

The war went on with varying fortunes. The city 
filled her quota under the various calls of the Presi- 
dent for troops. At last a draft became necessary, 
and in May, 1863, one of 300,000 men was ordered. 
There were many in the city, who had vowed 



450 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

to resist such an order, if made, and their resolu- 
tion was strengthened by the seditious utterances 
of certain politicians of the Peace Party, and also 
by the fact that at this time Governor Seymour 
had ordered the city militia away to help beat back 
Lee, who was invading Pennsylvania. The draft 
began July nth at the Provost-Marshal's office, and 
proceeded quietly the first day ; but on the second 
an organized mob attacked the office and wrecked it, 
and then began a three days' reign of terror. New 
York then discovered that she sheltered a band of 
savages, capable of atrocities that might make the 
fiercest warrior of the dark continent blush. The 
mob attacked the police, insulted women, chased 
colored people — men, women, and children — through 
the streets, and when they caught them hanged them 
to the nearest lamp-post ; they sacked houses, 
burned the colored orphan asylum; trampled under 
foot the national flag; and burned, murdered, and 
robbed with impunity. Secretary of War Stanton 
at once ordered back the New York troops, but ere 
they arrived the rioters had been quelled by the 
combined force of the police, the citizens, and the 
small military force which had been left in the city. 
Two millions of dollars' worth of property had been 
destroyed in the three days, and one thousand of the 
rioters are said to have been killed. 

The great event of 1864 was the Sanitary Fair of 
the 5th of April, which netted nearly one million 
dollars for the relief of the soldiers in the field. 

In 1865 one event stands out conspicuously, — the 
death of President Lincoln, who was shot by John 



NEW YORK IN THE CIVIL WAR. 45 1 

Wilkes Booth on the evening of April 14th. The 
news reached New York at 7:30 on the morning of 
the 15th, and elicited sentiments of deepest grief and 
horror. Stores were closed, business was suspended, 
and buildings were draped in emblems of mourning. 
A few days later the city received, with every mark 
of reverence and respect, the remains of the slain 
patriot. Funeral honors such as had never before 
been paid to a citizen by a free city were tendered. 
The body lay in state on a splendid catafalque in the 
City Hall, guarded by veterans of the army. On the 
afternoon of the 26th the funeral party was escorted 
to the railway station, on its way to Illinois, by sol- 
diers and civic societies that filled the streets for 
five miles ; later an immense concourse of citizens 
gathered in Union Square and listened to funeral 
orations by William CuUen Bryant and George 
Bancroft. In this spring of 1865 the return of the 
veterans, with tattered banners and honorable scars, 
closed the record of the civil war. 




XXIV. 

THE MOUSE IN THE CHEESE. 

I HAVE read somewhere a description of a great 
state dinner in an old Dutch city. A famous cheese 
had been made for this dinner, but as the attendants 
cut into it they found that a sagacious mouse had 
tunnelled her way inside, and with her family had 
begun housekeeping there ; so that when the good 
people looked for toothsomeness and regalement 
they found only vermin and foulness. One morning 
in July, 1 87 1, the people of New York awoke to the 
fact that there were mice in their municipal cheese ; 
in other words, that a large per cent, of the money 
which they — honest, hard-working taxpayers — had 
raised to support the city government and pay for 
such public improvements as were necessary, was 
being stolen by the very men who had sworn to ex- 
pend it economically and for the city's best interest. 
This was one of the gravest crimes that could be 
committed in a free state ; it added treachery and 
perjury to the crime of theft, it tarnished the fair 
fame of the city, and it tended to bring government 
by the people into disrepute. The master-spirit of 
the conspirators was William M. Tweed, a coarse, 
pushing, aggressive person, who several years before 

452 



THE MOUSE IN THE CHEESE. 453 

had left the ranks of honest labor to become a poli- 
tician. He cultivated that corrupt, degraded class, 
which under the leadership of the saloon-keeper has 
so debauched our city politics, and soon acquired 
such influence over it that he became its master. By 
the aid of this clientage he was elected to various 
ofiflces, each a little higher than the last, until finally 
he became Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and 
Deputy Street Commissioner, which virtually placed 
him at the head of the public works of the city, and 
gave him unlimited control of the public expendi- 
tures. He now formed a scheme of plundering, 
which for boldness and gigantic proportions has 
never been equalled in the history of peculation. 
Taking the officers of the city into his confidence, 
he formed that band of conspirators against the 
public till which the newspapers, with their happy 
facility for coining apt terms, named "The Ring." 
His method of procedure was simple yet shrewd. 
For every thing done for, or furnished to the city — 
opening, paving, or cleaning of streets, park improve- 
ments, public buildings, supplies furnished the city — 
a sum ranging from sixty to eighty-five per cent, in 
excess of the real cost was charged in the bills, the 
excess being divided among the conspirators ; if now 
and then an honest contractor ventured to remon- 
strate against presenting bills so much above the 
cost, he was threatened with loss of his contract, but 
generally the contractors were slaves of the ring. 
Tweed now projected public improvements on a 
grand scale. He lived in an ostentatious way. He 
gave munificently to public charities ; for a time he 
was quite the lion of the city. 



454 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

The new County Court-house formed the most 
striking example of the steaHngs of the ring. The 
Legislature had authorized the city to build it at a 
cost of $250,000; by 1871, though unfinished, it had 
cost $8,000,000, nearly $7,000,000 of which had gone 
into the pockets of the conspirators. In the few 
months of the ring's existence, it was estimated that 
it stole $20,000,000, — enough to have built the 
Brooklyn Bridge, or given twenty free libraries 
ample endowments, or provided beds in twenty 
well-appointed hospitals. 

But detection and punishment visited the con- 
spirators at last, singularly enough by means which 
they themselves provided, with a fatuity for which 
we cannot account. The fraudulent bills were 
entered in a book entitled " County Liabilities," 
which was kept among the records of the auditor's 
office. One day, an honest clerk in this office, 
who owed his position to John J. O'Brien, High- 
Sheriff of New York, came upon this book, copied 
the bills, and gave the copy to his patron, O'Brien. 
The latter called the attention of Tweed to them, 
and threatened to give the copy to the news- 
papers unless the ring paid a bill long due him 
by the city ; and, as they failed to pay, he, some 
months after, gave the copy to the New York Times. 
Now the newspapers of the city had long been call- 
ing public attention to the fact that the warrants 
drawn upon the treasury were far in excess of the 
expenditure, and we can imagine with what avidity 
the Times seized upon this morsel. Next morning 
it startled the city with the announcement in large 



THE MOUSE IN THE CHEESE. 455 

display type "Secret Accounts. Proofs of Un- 
doubted Frauds Brought to Light," and followed it 
with double-leaded columns of figures, giving item 
by item the amounts stolen by the ring. For several 
days it continued to publish double-leaded columns 
of extracts from *' County Liabilities," and, on Sat- 
urday, July 29th, finished with a supplement printed 
in English and German, in which the several series 
of figures were brought together and tabulated. 
The Tribune^ Herald^ and other great dailies ably 
seconded the Times. Thomas Nast, by his cartoons 
in Harper s Weekly^ dealt telling blows at the ring. 
The conspirators were dumbfounded, but thought to 
brazen it out. " What are you going to do about 
it?" asked Tweed, defiantly; words that have since 
become a proverb for brazen insolence. The indig- 
nant people thought they would do something, and 
appointed seventy of their wisest and best citizens 
as a committee to bring the thieves to justice. Most 
of the latter became frightened and fled to Europe. 
Tweed remained, was arrested, indicted for perjury 
and grand larceny, found guilty, and sentenced to a 
long term of imprisonment in the penitentiary on 
Blackwell's Island. In 1875, his friends secured his 
release on bail, but he was at once re-arrested on a 
civil suit to recover six millions of dollars stolen 
from the city treasury. Not being able to find the 
bail required — three million dollars — he was placed 
in Ludlow Street Jail, from which he shortly after 
escaped and fled to Europe. He was traced to 
Spain, however, and arrested there ; the Spanish 
authorities thinking that so great a rogue ought not 



45^ THE STOR V OF NE W YORK, 

to be at large, surrendered him. He was brought 
back, tried on the civil suit, and a verdict of $6,537,- 
000 returned against him by the jury. He was un- 
able or unwilling to pay this, and remained in prison 
until his death, in January, 1878, — a miserable end, 
and one that carries a moral with it. 

The Tweed incident was a dark blot on the city's 
escutcheon ; others quite as foul have since been 
added, and the end is not yet. They have furnished 
the English Saturday Review and other Tory jour- 
nals texts for many discourses on the evil effects of 
free institutions. The Tory friends one meets in 
London are fond of instancing it as an example of 
the failure of democracy. 

It is useless to shut our eyes to the fact that 
New York is badly governed ; but equally true is 
it that this government was not put in power by 
American votes ; nor is it the outcome of American 
institutions. European laws and European social 
conditions are responsible for it. Ghetto and 
Judenstrasse had first to exist before the slums 
of New York were possible. New York has, in 
fact, become a sieve that catches the riff-raff of all 
nations. Between three and four hundred thousand 
emigrants, of various nationalities, arrive at New 
York every year. Of these, the strong, thrifty, am- 
bitious push forward to the West, while the vicious, 
ignorant, lazy, ne'er-do-wells, the mentally, morally, 
and physically diseased remain in New York. There 
were, in 1880, 478,670 foreign-born persons in New 
York. Many of them cannot read nor write. Many 
cannot even speak our language. They never heard 



THE MOUSE IN THE CHEESE. 45/ 

of our Constitution, nor of any one of the traditions 
of our government ; yet, on election day, under the 
lead of the local boss, the voters among them flock 
to the polls, and their vote counts for as much as 
that of the native-born American. These European 
outcasts make Tweed rings possible, and elect boodle 
aldermen. The honest student of political science 
will find in them, and not in our free institutions, the 
genesis of the city's disgraceful government. 

Again, the topography of New York is an impor- 
tant factor in producing this result. On a long, nar- 
row island, swept by navigable waters, bearing the 
commerce of the world, land acquires an enormous 
value. Only the very rich and the very poor can live 
on Manhattan Island— the poor, because they are 
content with little space ; the rich, because they can 
buy all they need. As a result, the great middle class 
— the true conservator of society — is driven to seek 
homes outside the city ; and as the poor outnumber 
the rich, the city government is entrusted, practically, 
to the inmates of the great tenement hives. How 
these alarming conditions may best be removed, is a 
question for the coming generation to solve. Un- 
doubtedly when we have statesmen for our rulers, 
several things will be done. Unrestricted immigration 
will be stopped. The crowded tenement hives will 
be torn down, and their inmates removed to model 
houses, where more than his natural right to six feet 
of space will be allowed each tenant ; and lastly, the 
city's bounds will be enlarged to include Brooklyn 
and her suburban villages, the towns of Westchester 
. County along the Hudson and the Sound, and if the 



45 S 



THE STOR V OF NE W YORK. 



consent of New Jersey can be obtained, Jersey City 
and the entire peninsula between New York and 
Newark Bay. With so wide a territory, the forma- 
tion of " rings " would be much more difficult, and 
the votes of the middle class would be enlisted in 
the cause of good government. 




XXV. 



THE TRIUMPHS OF ART. 



The latter days of the city have been marked by 
two great triumphs of art — the Brooklyn Bridge and 
the Bartholdi Statue. As an engineering feat, the 
former stands unrivalled ; and its office of connect- 
ing the two great cities of New York and Brooklyn, 
making them practically one, adds to its distinction. 
It is a monument to the genius of the great engineer, 
John A. Roebling, who conceived it, and to his son, 
Washington A. Roebling, who, on his father's death, 
before his plans could be carried out, took charge of 
the work, and carried it to successful completion. A 
charter for a Bridge Company to build this great 
work was granted by the New York Legislature, in 
1867. The company was organized in May, of that 
year, and in January, 1870, began the construction 
of the bridge. The towers, each 272 feet above tide 
water, were first built. Then, May 29, 1877, the first 
little wire, to serve as a nucleus for the pioneer cable, 
was run out from the towers. When 5,269 of these 
galvanized steel, oil-coated wires had been laid side 
by side — not twisted — and bound, the first of the 
four great cables — 3,455 feet long, and capable of 
sustaining a weight of 12,200 tons — was complete. 

459 



460 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

All were at last completed, and then came the sus- 
pending from them of the roadway and the building 
of the massive approaches of masonry on either side. 

On May 24, 1883, after thirteen years of labor, the 
structure was opened to the public. Impressive cer- 
emonies attended the event. The President and his 
cabinet, Governors of States, and distinguished guests 
attended. The harbor was filled with merchant ves- 
sels gay with bunting, and seven frigates of the North 
Atlantic squadron participated. The Seventh Regi- 
ment, Colonel Emmons Clark, escorted the distin- 
guished visitors to the New York end of the bridge. 
As this was reached the flagship Tennessee began a 
general salute, which was completed by the other 
frigates, the Navy Yard, and Castle William on 
Governor's Island. Meantime the party proceeded 
to the centre of the bridge, where it was met by the 
municipal authorities of Brooklyn, and escorted to 
the Brooklyn station, in which a great company had 
gathered. Here the ceremonies opened with prayer 
by Bishop Littlejohn, of Brooklyn. An oration by 
Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, and an address 
by Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Brooklyn, followed. A 
reception at the house of Chief Engineer Roebling, 
in Brooklyn, and a general display of fireworks in 
the evening, completed the ceremonies. 

The noble statue of Liberty Enlightening the 
World is intended to typify at once the genius of 
America and the benefits of liberty to mankind. It 
is the creation of M. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, an 
eminent French sculptor, who was born some fifty- 
three years ago at Colmar, in Alsace, France. What 



462 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

adds to its interest is the fact that it is a tribute of 
respect and esteem from the French people to the 
people of the United States. The conception is said 
to have first taken form in the sculptor's mind as he 
sailed up the noble harbor in the ship that bore 
him from France. He said : 

"We will rear here, before the eyes of the millions of 
strangers seeking a home in the New World, a colossal 
statue of Liberty ; in her upstretched hand the torch en- 
lightening the world ; in her other hand the Book of 
Laws, to remind them that true liberty is only found in 
obedience to law ; and the people of France shall present 
the statue in memory of the ancient friendship subsisting 
between the two countries." 

This was in 1870. After travelling throughout our 
country for several months and finding hearty en- 
couragement for his project, Bartholdi returned to 
France, where his proposed work excited the warm- 
est enthusiasm of the people. They willingly con- 
tributed the material, and the statue was begun at 
once and made rapid progress. The head was 
completed and exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 
1878. On October 24, 1881 — the anniversary of the 
battle of Yorktown, — the pieces of the framework 
and base were put in place, and on July 4, 1884, M. 
De Lesseps, the president of the French committee 
for procuring funds, officially presented the statue to 
the Hon. Levi P. Morton, our Minister to France. 
In his speech at the time, M. De Lesseps said that 
the statue was " the gift of France, the contributions 
of one hundred and eighty cities, forty general coun- 




STATUE OF LIBERTY. 



4^4 THE STOR V OF NEW YORK. 

cils, a large number of societies, and of over one 
hundred thousand subscribers." At the same time 
the French government provided a national vessel, 
the here, for transporting the statue to our shores. 
Meantime a pedestal for the statue had to be erected, 
and it was proposed that the American people should 
provide this by popular subscription, as the French 
had done with the statue, and an American commit- 
tee was formed. Congress had authorized President 
Hayes to set apart a site for the statue, and he 
designated Bedloe's Island in New York harbor, 
about a mile southwest of the Battery. Ground was 
first broken for the pedestal in April, 1883, ^^<^ the 
latter was completed in April, 1886, a solid mass of 
masonry, 154 feet 10 inches high — about three and a 
half feet higher than the goddess which was to crown 
it. This statue was not cast of bronze, but was 
built up of repousse, or sheets of hammered copper. 
The sheets were packed in cases, and put on board 
the French vessel here, which arrived off Sandy 
Hook in the latter part of June, 1886. There she was 
met by the North Atlantic squadron and escorted 
up the bay, while the forts fired salutes, and the city 
bells rang joyous peals in her honor. 

The work of putting the statue together was com- 
pleted in October, 1886, under the direction of 
General Charles P. Stone, of the United States 
army. The ceremonies attending the dedication on 
October 28, 1886, are familiar to the youngest reader, 
and need not be detailed here. 



APPENDICES. 



Appendix A, 

MAYORS OF NEW YORK SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 

David Matthews, 17 76-1 784. 
James Duane, 1784-1789. 
Richard Varick, 17 89-1 801. 
Edward Livingston, 1 801-1803. 
De Witt Clinton, 1803-1807. 
Marinus Willett, 1807-1808. 
De Witt Clinton, 1808-18 10. 
Jacob Radcliff, 1810-1811. 
De Witt Clinton, 1811-1815. 
John Ferguson, 1815. 
Jacob Radcliff, 1815-1818. 
Cadwallader D. Colden, 1818-1821. 
Stephen Allen, 1821-1824. 
William Paulding, 1824-1826. 
Phillip Hone, 1826-1827. 
William Paulding, 182 7-1 829. 
Walter Bowne, 1829-1833. 
Gideon Lee, 1833-1834. 
Cornelius W. Lawrence, 1834-183 7. 
Aaron Clark, 1837-1839. 
Isaac L. Varian, 1839-1841. 
Robert H. Morris, 1 841 -1844. 
James Harper, 1 844-1 847. 

465 



466 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

William V. Brady, 1 847-1848. 
William F. Havemeyer, 1 848-1 849. 
Caleb S. Woodhull, 1 849-1 851. 
Ambrose C. Kingsland, 1851-1853. 
Jacob A. Westervelt, 1853-1855, 
Fernando Wood, 1855-1858. 
Daniel N. Tieman, 1858-1860. 
Fernando Wood, 1 860-1 862. 
George Opydyke, 1862-1864. 
C. Godfrey Gunther, 1 864-1 866. 
John T. Hoffman, 1866-1868. 
Thomas Coman (Acting Mayor), 1868. 
A. Oakey Hall, 1 869-1 871. 
William F. Havemeyer, 1873-1874. 
William H. Wickham, 1875-1877. 
Smith Ely, 187 7-1 879. 
Edward Cooper, 1879-1880. 
William R. Grace, 1881-1883. 
Franklin Edson, 1883-1885. 
William R. Grace, 1885-1887. 
Abram S. Hewitt, 1887- 



Appendix B. 

NOTABLE AND CURIOUS EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF NEW 
YORK, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY. 

1609. (Sept. 6th.) Hudson discovers Manhattan Island. 

1613. Trading-port of four houses established on the 

island by Amsterdam merchants. 

1614. Fort Amsterdam erected. 

1621. Dutch West India Company chartered, and terri- 
tory of New Netherland committed to its care. 



APPENDICES. 467 

1624. Peter Minuit, first Director, arrives. 
1626. Buys Manhattan Island (22,000 acres in area) of 
the Indians for $24 in merchandise. 

1632. Minuit succeeded by Wouter Van Twiller. 

1633. First schoolmaster (Adam Roelantsen) arrived, 

and the first church built. 
1635. Fort Amsterdam finished at cost of $1,688. 
1638. William Kieft succeeds Van Twiller as Director. 
1642. Stone tavern (later Stadt Huys) built at head of 

Coenties Slip. 
1647. Petrus Stuyvesant succeeds Kieft as Director. 
1650. First lawyer (Dirck Van Schellyen) began practice. 

1652. First city charter granted. 

1653. Palisades along line of Wall Street erected as de- 

fence against the English. The first magis- 
trates appointed. 

1656. City first surveyed, and the streets — 17 — mapped ; 

120 houses and 1,000 inhabitants then in the 
city. 

1657. Average price of city lots, $50. 

1658. Streets paved with stone. Rattle watch of eight 

men appointed. Rent of an average house $14 
per year. Fire buckets, hooks, and ladders 
furnished. 

1664. City taken by the English. Population, 1,500. 

1665. Jury trials first established. 

1668. Francis Lovelace succeeds Colonel Nicolls as 
Governor. 

1673. City retaken by the Dutch. 

1674. Re-ceded to the English. 

1678. An Admiralty Court established, and citizens 
given the exclusive right to export bread and 
flour. Three ships and fifteen sloops and 
barques owned in the city. 



4^8 THE STOR Y OF NEW YORK. 

1683. Dougan's charter granted. City divided into six 
wards. 

1685. Assessed value of property, ;£^75,694. 

1686. City seal presented. 

1688. Wall Street laid out, '^6 feet wide. 

1691. Leisler hanged. 

1692. Pine, Cedar, and adjoining streets laid out through 

the old Damen farm. 

1693. First printing-press established by William Brad- 

ford. Bell-man or town-crier appointed, and 
furnished with livery dress. The city builds a 
bridge over Spuyten Duyvil creek. 

1696. First Trinity Church erected. 

1697. First regular night-watch established. Streets 

lighted by extending a lantern on a pole from 
every seventh house. 
1699. City Hall in Wall Street erected. 

1702. Free Grammar School established. 

1703. Trinity Churchyard granted to the church by the 

city. A cage, pillory, and stocks for the pun- 
ishment of criminals erected before the City 
Hall. 

1707. Broadway paved from Trinity Church to Bowling 
Green. 

1 7 10. Lutheran Church erected corner Broadway and 
Rector Street. 

1 7 16. A public clock of four dials first put up in the 
city on the City Hall, presented by Stephen 
De Lancey. 

17 19. Presbyterian Church in Wall Street erected. 

1725. The first newspaper — The New York Gazette — 
published by William Bradford. 

1728. Jews' burial ground opened near Chatham Square. 

1729. Dutch Church in Nassau Street (old Post-Office) 

erected. 



APPENDICES. 469 

1730. Stages to Philadelphia once a fortnight in winter. 

1 73 1. A library of 1,622 volumes bequeathed by Rev. 

Dr. Wellington, of England, opened in the 
city, nucleus of the present Society Library. 
Two fire engines brought from London, and a 
fire department of twenty-four men organized. 
City divided into seven wards. 

1734. A work-house erected in the present Park. Zen- 
ger's Weekly Journal established. 

1 740-1. Hard winter. Snow six feet on a level. Hud- 
son frozen over at New York. 

1743. The Postboy^ newspaper established by James 
Parker. 

1750. Beekman Street laid out and paved. Thames 

and John streets paved. 

1 75 1. Moravian Chapel built in Fulton Street. 

1752. First Merchants' Exchange built at foot of Broad 

Street. 

1754. The Walton House, on Pearl Street, erected by 

William Walton, a merchant. Present Society 
Library established. 

1755. Staten Island Ferry established. 

1757. (May.) Troops embark against Canada. 

1760. A public clock presented by John Watts to the 

Exchange. 

1 761. Fulton Street (then Partition) regulated and 

paved. 

1762. Public lamps and lamp-posts erected. 

1763. Powle's Hook (Jersey City) Ferry established. 

1764. The first Methodist Church (in John Street) erect- 

ed. Coal thought of as fuel. Sandy Hook 
Light-house first lighted. 

1768. Brick Church (Beekman Street) opened. 

1769. Robert Murray, of New York, reputed the largest 

shipowner in America. 



470 THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

1770. Chamber of Commerce incorporated by Royal 
Charter. 

1773. Lots on corner of Nassau and Pine valued at ;z^i5o 

each. 
1773- (Sept.) Corner-stone of New York Hospital laid 
by Governor Tryon. 

1774. Hoboken Ferry established. Chatham Street so 

named. 

1784. (May.) King's College re-chartered by State of 

New York and named Columbia College. Wil- 
liam Samuel Johnson, first president, elected 
1787. 

1785. (May.) Ship Empress returned, — the first vessel 

ever sent from the United States to China. Sir 
John Temple, first Consul-General from George 
III., arrived. 

1795. Yellow-fever introduced by a British frigate ; 
732 deaths occurred from the disease. Society 
Library opened its first building, corner of 
Nassau and Cedar. 

1804 New York Historical Society organized (Novem- 
ber 20th) by Mayor De Witt Clinton, Judge 
Egbert Benson, Rev. Drs. Samuel Miller, John 
N. Mason, John N. Abeel, William Linn, Dr. 
David Hosack, Anthony Bleecker, Samuel 
Bayard, Peter G. Stuyvesant, and John Pintard. 

1806. First Free School opened. Washington Irving 

admitted to the bar. 

1807. College of Physicians and Surgeons chartered. 

1808. American Academy of Fine Arts incorporated. 

Chancellor Livingston, president ; John Trum- 
bull, vice-president. 

1809. Knickerbocker's '' History of New York " ap- 

peared. 



APPENDICES. 471 

1812. Present City Hall completed. War with Eng- 

land declared. New York within four months 
sent 26 privateers to sea, carrying 212 guns, 
2,239 nien. 

1813. New York blockaded by British fleet. 

1815. (Feb. nth.) News of the treaty of peace at Ghent 

received. 

1816. American Bible Society formed. 

1820. Apprentices' Library founded. 

182 1. Mercantile Library founded. 

1824. Lafayette, revisiting America, arrived in New 

York. 
1831. University of the City of New York founded. 

Leake and Watts' Orphan Asylum founded by 

Hon. John Watts. Opened for the admission 

of orphans in 1843. 
1833. New York Sun founded by Benjamin H. Day. 

1835. New York Herald founded by James Gordon 

Bennett. 

1836. Union Theological Seminary founded. 

1 84 1. New York Tribune founded by Horace Greeley. 

1842. Croton Aqueduct opened. Celebration of the 

event July 4th. 
1845. Magnetic telegraph opened between New York 

and Philadelphia. 
1848. Astor Library founded by bequest of John Jacob 

Astor. 
1 85 1. New York Times founded by Henry J. Raymond. 

Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited New 

York. 
1853. World Fair in Crystal Palace on Murray Hill. 
1856. Site of Central Park {^dz acres) purchased for 

nearly five and one half million dollars 
1858. Corner-stone of St. Patrick's Cathedral laid. At- 
lantic cable laid. 



47^ THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 

i860. New York ^^r/^/ founded by Manton Marble. 

1862. Corner-stone of New York Academy of Design 

laid. 

1870. East River Bridge begun. 

1883. Bridge opened to the Public. 

1886. Bartholdi statue dedicated. 




PRESENT SEAL OF NEW YORK 




INDEX. 



Adams, John, elected Vice-Presi- 
dent, 363 ; mention of, 366, 371, 

373, 374 
Adams, Samuel, delegate to Con- 
tinental Congress, 287 
Adventure Galley ^ Kidd's ship, 178 
American Fur Company, founded, 

394 

American Museum, 441 

Amsterdam Chamber, entrusted 
with New Netherlands' affairs, 
13; first settlement by, 13; 
founds New Netherlands, 14 

Amsterdam, Fort, begun, 27; com- 
pleted, 49 

Amsterdam merchants form trad- 
ing company, 14 

Amusements, colonial, 250 

Anabaptists persecuted, 55 

Andros, Sir Edmond, appointed 
governor of New York, 138 ; 
of New York and New England, 
145 ; deposed, 145 ; sent to 
England, 156 

Anne, Queen, proclaimed, igo ; 
aids Palatines, 191 ; grant to 
Trinity Church, 192 

Asia, frigate, fires on the city, 
290 ; mentioned, 291 

Astor, John Jacob, career of, 392 ; 
Astor Library founded by, 400 ; 
Astoria founded by, 396 

B 

Bainbridge, the Commodore Wil- 
liam, captures Java, 436 



Balls, colonial, 214 

Barclay, Rev. Henry, Rector of 

Trinity, 183 
Barlow, Joel, 404 
Bartholdi Statue of Liberty, 461 
Battle Hill, Greenwood, 318 
Bayard, Nicholas, king's council- 
lor, 147 ; flees the city, 154 ; ar- 
rested. 156 
Beaver skins, value of, 32 
Bellomont associated with Kidd, 
178 ; appointed governor, 179 ; 
his stormy reign, 187 ; arrests 
Kidd, 188 ; death, 188 
Billeting Act, 272 
Bissel, Trail, message of, 284 
Missels, Adam, patroon, 36 
Blackwell's Island, purchased, 49 
Block, Adrian, discovers Connecti- 
cut River and Block Island, 11 
Bloemmaert, Samuel, patroon, 35 ; 
founds Zwanendael, 36 ; buys a 
share in Rensselaerwyck, 36 
Bowling Green described, 107 
Bradford, Governor, receives em- 
bassy from Minuit, 29 
Brick Church used as a prison, 338 
Broad Street bridge and canal, io[ 
Brooklyn Bridge, charter, 459 ; 

opened, 460 
Brooklyn Heights, defenses on, 

306 ; described, 312 
Brooklyn in 1663, 116 
Burgomasters and schepens of New 
Amsterdam appointed, 72 ; letter 
of, on surrender of the city, 84 
Burr, Aaron, aide to General Put- 
nam, 308 ; aids Silliman's bri- 



473 



474- 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK. 



gade to escape, 327 ; in politics, 
377; elected Vice-President, 3S3 ; 
challenges Hamilton, 3S5 

C 

Carther, E., letter of, 270 

Canton and California clippers, 422 

Chambers, West India Company, 
12 

Charles II. ascends the throne, 89 ; 
grant to Connecticut, 81 ; and to 
James, Duke of York. 8 ; in 
league with Louis XIV., 136 ; 
death, 143 

Charter, of freedoms and exemp- 
tions, 34 ; of New Amsterdam, 
70 ; of liberties and privileges, 
141 ; of New York City, 144 

Chimney-sweeps, 97 

Christian Commission founded, 449 

Christina, Fort, built, 57 ; cap- 
tured, 74 

Church, first, in New Netherlands, 
28 ; described, 112 ; worship, 
Dutch, 114 

Churches, early, of New York : 
Dutch Reformed of St. Nich- 
olas, 180 ; Trinity, 1S2-3 ; 
Huguenot, 184 ; Presbyterian, 
185 ; Baptist, 1S5 ; Methodist, 
185 

City currency, 432 

City Hall, built, 434 ; Park, 265 ; 
in 1825, 441 

Clemiont, steamboat, described, 404 

Clinton, De Witt, student, 431 ; 
advocates Erie Canal, 410 ; at 
celebration of, 416 ; Fort, 442 

Clinton, George, governor of New 
York, mention of, 345, 346, 352, 

^ 353. 364. 371, 377 

Commerce, Chamber of, founded, 
198 

Commercial Advertiser founded, 
333 

Committee of One Hundred ap- 
pointed, 287 

Communipaw, founded, 37 

Congress, colonial, first, 156 ; sec- 
ond, 363 ; provincial, meets, 289 



■ Connecticut, River, discovered, 11; 

State, first settled, 47 ; aids in 

capture of New Amsterdam, 82 
Cornbur}-, Lord, governor, 190 
i Corporation dinners, 224 
Cortlandt, Stephanus Van, king's 

councillor, 147 ; mayor, 152 ; 

flies from Leisler, 154 
Cosby, Governor, proceeds against 

Zenger, 194 ; marriage of 

daughter of, 21S 
Costumes, colonial, 206 
Council, first, 59 
Court scenes, Dutch, 117 ; English, 

247 
Courts, English, established, 142 
Craftsmen, quaint, 232 
Creuxis quoted, 23 
Cregier, Martin, innkeeper, 103 ; 

president of burgomasters, 118 
Crier, town, 117 
Cruger. John, mayor, 171 
Curler, Jacob Van, buys Connit- 

tecock, 46 
Cunningham, Captain, British pro- 
vost-marshal, cruelly of, 337, 

340, 342 

D 

Decaiur, Commodore, captures the 
Macedonia7i, 436 

Delaware, State of, first set- 
tled, 36 

Dellius, Domine, estates confis- 
cated, 187 

Docks, city, first, 97 

Dongan, Thomas, appointed gov- 
ernor, 141 

Draft riots, 450 

Dreadnought, clipper, 423, 428 

Dutch, country described, 5 ; peo- 
ple. 6 ; religion and goverment, 
6 ; money, value of, 32 ; inn de- 
scribed, 103 ; dress, 113 

E 

East India Company, English, 7 ; 

protests against pirates, 175 ; 

Dutch, 7 
Eelkens, Jacob, sent by London 



INDEX. 



475 



merchants, to trade in Dutch 
territory, 43 ; driven out, 46 

Egg-cracking, 128 

Erie Canal, 408 ; begun, 410 ; 
completed, 411 ; opening cere- 
monies, 412 

Erie Railroad chartered, 419 



Farmers' bell, 106 

Federal Constitution adopted, 352, 
353 ; by Congress, 360 

Federal Hall, built, 222 ; remod- 
elled from City Hail, 361 

Federal party, at birth of the Con- 
stitution, 352 ; described, 376 

Festivals, Dutch, 126 

Fete days, 214 

Firemen and fire-engines, 241 

Fitch, John, 404 

Flag, Dutch, described, 4 ; Eng- 
lish, 131 

Flatlands settled, 49 

Fletcher, Benjamin, appointed 
governor, 168 ; endows Trinity 
Church, 181 ; recalled, 179 

Francis I. commissions Verrazano, I 

French church used as a prison, 338 

Fulton Ferry, 96, regulations of, 
116 ; cut of, 209 

Fulton, Robert, sketch of, 402 ; 
builds Clermojit, 404 

G 

Gage, General, besieged in Boston, 
291 ; dubbed Lord Lexington, 
etc., 299 
Gaol, new, described, 342 
George, Fort, the capitol, 212 
George HI., King, statue of, de- 
stroyed, 296 ; raises armies to 
subdue America, 298 
Godyn, Samuel, patroon, 35 
Good Hope, House of, built, 46 
Governor's Island bought, 49 
Governors, Royal, of New York, 
terms of office, 132 ; Pew of, 
183 
Grange, Hamilton's, 386 



H 



Hale, Nathan, executed as a spy, 

357 
Hamilton, Alexander, student, 266; 
captain in patriot army, 308-327; 
delegate to Federal Convention, 
350 ; in politics, 377 ; duel with 
Aaron Burr, 386 ; death, 388 
Hamilton, Andrew, lawyer, counsel 

for Zenger, 195 
Hancock, John, letter of, 287 
Harlem Heights, 328 ; battle of, 

330 
Herald, newspaper, founded, 441 
Hessians, account of, 300 
Houses and furniture, Dutch, 123 
Howe, Sir William, evacuates 
Boston, 294; besieges New York, 
297; attack on Long Island, 312; 
Battle of Harlem Heights, 330 
Hudson, Henry, captain, discovers 
New Netherlands, 8 ; death, 10 
Hudson River discovered, 3 
Huguenots, account of, 1S5 
Hull, Isaac, commodore, captures 

the Giternere, 436 
Hunter, Robert, appointed gov- 
ernor, 191 



Independence, Declaration of, read 
to the army, 296 

Indians, American, various tribes 
of, 21 ; dress, manners, etc., 22; 
combine against the Dutch, 60, 
76 

Ingoldsby, Richard, lieutenant- 
governor, 158 ; arrives in New 
York, 159 ; acting-governor, 168 

Irving, Washington, publishes 
"History of New York, "434; 
portrait of, 433 



James, Duke of York, grant of 
New York, 81 ; ascends throne, 
143 ; abdicates, 143 



4/6 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK:. 



James, Fort, named, 131 ; surren- 
dered to Dutch, 138 

Jans Roelof, grant of land to, 49 ; 
farm of, given to Trinity Church, 
190 

Jay, John, sketch of, 266 ; portrait 
of, 267 

Jones, John Paul, commodore, 
captures the Frolic, 436 



Labadists visit New York, 204 
Laet, De, co-patroon, 36 
Lafayette visits America, 443 
Lamb, John, sketch of, 265 ; men- 
tioned, 274, 290 
Lansing, John, delegate to consti- 
tutional convention, 350 
Lee, Charles, general, takes com- 
mand of Nevv' York, 292 ; trans- 
ferred to the South, 294 
Leisler, Jacob, usurps the govern- 
ment, 147 ; trial of, 163 ; exe- 
cuted, 166 ; estates restored to 
heirs, 186 
Leitch, Major, gallant death, 332 
Lexington, alarm of battle of, 284 
Liberty poles, 273 ; battle of, 275 
Lind, Jenny, arrives in America, 

462 
Livingston, Chancellor, adminis- 
ters the oath to President Wash- 
ington, 366 
Livingston, Edward, 378 
Livingston, Robert, the first, sketch 

of, 177 
Livingston, Robert, 404 
Long Island, battle of, 317 
Lovelace, Richard, governor, 
sketch of, 136 

M 

Maiden Lane, derivation of name, 

96 
Manhattan Island, described, 19 ; 

purchased of Indians, 20 
Markets, colonial, 231 
McDougall, Alexander, sketch of, 

265 ; mentioned, 290 



McGowan's Pass mentioned, 303 

Melyn, Cornelius, tried for sedi- 
tion, 66 

Michaelis, Jonas, Rev., first minis- 
ister, 28 ; letter of, 93 

Middle Dutch Church used as a 
prison, 338 

Milborne, Jacob, 147 ; executed, 
166 

Minuit, Peter, first director, 15 ; 
recalled, 38 ; in service of Swe- 
dish queen, 56 

Moore, Sir Henry, governor, 272 

Montgomery, John, governor, fur- 
niture of, 219 

Morris, Lewis, 156 

Moussart,Toussaint, co-patroon, 36 

Muscovy Company founded, 10 

N 

New Jersey settled, 36 

New Netherlands, first discovery, 
3 ; first named, 11 ; settlement, 
13. 14 > government of, 26 ; 
taken by the English, 89 

Newspaper, first, 192 

New Year festivities, 126 

New York Central Railroad 
opened, 419 

New York Historical Society 
founded, 433 

New York, named, 131 ; chartered, 
144 ; occupied by patriot army ; 
302 ; captured by the British, 
328 ; evacuated, 344 ; court 
town, 371 ; commercial develop- 
ment, 401 ; in the civil war, 
445 ; misgoverned, 456 

Nicholson, Lieutenant - Governor, 
deposed by Leisler, 150 

Nicolls, Richard, colonel, captures 
New Amsterdam, 81-89 ; first 
governor of New York, 133 ; 
death of, 138 

North Dutch Church used as a 
prison, 338 

O 

Orange, Fort (Albany), founded, ii 



INDEX. 



A77 



Paas, festival of, 128 

Packet service, 420 

Palatines arrive, 191 

Parsons, General, in battle of Long 
Island, 318 

Patroons, charter of, 33 ; quarrel 
with West India Company, 37 

Pauw, Michael, patroon, 36 

Pavonia founded, 36 

Peiret, Pierre, Rev. organizes Hu- 
guenot Church, 184 

Penn, William, adviser of Duke of 
York, 140 

Pennsylvania Railroad opened, 419 

Phillipse, Adolph, store of, 229 

Phillipse, Frederick, Councillor, 
147 ; manor of, 147 

Piracy and privateering, 169 

Pirates, dress of, 174 

Porter, David, commodore, cap- 
tures the Alert, 436 

Praetors, the, 266 

Prisons, British, 338 

Prison ships, 340 

Privateers, exploits of, 225 

Putnam, Israel, hastens to Con- 
cord, 285 ; assumes command at 
New York, 294 ; in battle of 
Long Island, 313 ; letter of, 314 ; 
leads his division from New 
York, 327 

Q 
Quakers persecuted, 55, 77 
R 

Rapaelje, Sarah, first-born female 
child in New Amsterdam, 29 

Raritan Indians punished, 58 

Rasieres, Isaac de, provincial sec- 
retary, 29 ; goes on embassy to 
Plymouth, 30 ; letter of, 31 

Rensselaer, Kilian Van, patroon, 

35 ; purchases Rensselaerwyck, 

36 ; his sons, 37 
Republican party described, 376 



Richmond Hill, Washington's 
head-quarters, 294; home of Vice- 
President Adams. 373 ; of Aaron 
Burr, 383 

Risingh, Governor, of New Swe- 
den, 74 



Sanitary Commission founded, 449 

Scott, John Morin, sketch of, 265 ; 
letter of, 292 

Seal, of New Amsterdam, 79 ; of 
New York, 144 

Sears, Isaac, sketch of, 265 ; ad- 
ministers oath to Tories, 293 

Slaves, negro, described, 242 ; in- 
surrection of, 191, 245 

Slaughter, Henry, Governor, 155 ; 
arrival, 161 ; death, 168 

Smit, Claes, murder of, 58 

Snuff-taking, 256 

Sons of Liberty, 261, 264 

Stadt Huys built, 62 ; changed to 
City Hall, 72 

Stamford Indians massacred, 61 

Stamp, Act, 258 ; masters deposed, 
243 ; repeal of, 272 

Staten Island, purchased, 48 ; 
massacre at, 58 ; passage boat, 

233 

States-General, described, 6 ; could 
be appealed to, 261 

Steamboats, invention of, 404 

Steenwyck, Cornells, mentioned, 
87, 98 ; sketch of, 122 ; dines 
Colonel NicoUs, 136 

Stirling, Lord, in New York, and 
at battle of Long Island, 318 

Street signs, 235 

Stuyvesant, Petrus, appointed di- 
rector, 62 ; arrival at New 
Amsterdam, 65 ; visits Hartford, 
69 ; marches against the Swedes, 
74 ; surrenders New Nether- 
lands, 89 ; death of, 92 ; his 
mansion, 92; sketch of, 114 

Sugar House Prison, 338 

Sullivan, General, in battle of Long 
Island, 313 



478 



THE STORY OF NEW YORK 



Sun, newspaper, founded, 441 
Swedes, settle Delaware, 56 ; con- 
quered by the Dutch, 74 



Taine, M., quoted, 134, 259 
Taverns, English, 238 
Tea party, New York's, 278 
Times, newspaper, founded, 441 
Tory, party, 260 ; oath, 293 ; camp 
broken up, 295 ; tarred and 
feathered, 296 ; rides, 296 
Tribune, newspaper, founded, 441 
Trinity Church, built, 182 ; en- 
larged, 183 ; burned, 183, 334 ; 
grant to, 190 ; ruins of (print), 
335 ; rebuilt, 432 
Twiller, Wouter Van, director, 

40 ; arrives at New Amsterdam, 

41 ; recaptures Fort Nassau, 48 ; 
removed, 50 

Tweed ring, 452 

U 
Uniform, Continental, 307 

V 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, sketch of, 
406 

Vanderlyn, John, sketch of, 440 

Verrazano, Jean, discovers New 
York Bay, 2 ; takes possession, 
3 ; writes the " Relation," 4 

Vigne, Jean, first white male child 
born in New Netherlands, 204 

Vlie boats, 104 

Vries, Pietersen de, co-patroon, 37; 
sketch of, 41 ; revisits the col- 
ony, 42 ; purchases Staten Isl- 
and, 48 ; member of first coun- 
cil, 59 ; returns to Holland, 61 

W 

Wall, city, 96 

Wampum, described, 23 ; value of, 
32 



War of 1812, naval triumphs of, 

436 
Warren, Joseph W., quoted, 285 
Washington, George, appointed 
commander-in-chief, 289; passes 
through New York, 289 ; takes 
command of the city, 294 ; or- 
ders retreat from Long Island, 
321 ; evacuates the city, 325 ; 
fights battle of Harlem Heights, 
330 ; autograph letter of, 343 ; 
takes possession of New York, 
345 ; elected President of the 
United States, 363 ; inaugurated, 
364 ; extracts from his diary, 

371. 434 
West India Company, chartered, 

II ; described, 12 
Whitehall Street, 102 
William of Orange, king, 143 ; and 

Mary proclaimed, 152 ; death 

of, 190 
Wilmington, Delaware, founded, 

57 

WiUett, Marinus, sketch of, 265 ; 
letter of, 2S6 ; seizes arms, 291 

Windmills, Dutch, iii 

Winthrop, Governor, aids in cap- 
turing New Amsterdam, 86 

Wood, Fernando, message of, 446 

Wooley, James, Rev., desciibes 
New York, 200 

World, newspaper, founded, 441 

Wolves, bounty on, 105 



Yates, Robert, 350 
Younge, John, petitions Duke of 
York, 140 



Zukenslroosters sent out, 28 
Zenger, John Peter, sketch of, 

192 ; trial of, for libel, 194 
Zwanendael, founded, 36 ; de- 
stroyed by Indians, 42 



The Story of the Nations. 



MessPsS. G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in 
announcing that they have in course of publication a 
series of historical studies, intended to present in a 
graphic manner the stories of the different nations that 
have attained prominence in history. 

In the story form the current of each national life will 
be distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy 
periods and episodes will be presented for the reader in 
their philosophical relation to each other as well as to 
universal history. 

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to 
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them 
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and 
struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused 
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with 
which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- 
looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from 
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted 
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes will be planned 
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive 
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 
the great StorY OF THE NATIONS ; but it will, of course 



not always prove practicable to issue the several volumes 
in their chronological order. 

The '' Stories " are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated 
and furnished with maps and indexes. They are sold 
separately at a price of $1.50 each. 

The following volumes are now ready (November, 
1889): 

THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. 
ROME. Arthur Oilman. 
THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. 
CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 
SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 
HUNGARY. Prof. A. VAmbery. 
CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 
THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. 
THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. 
PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 
ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 
ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 
ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 
IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 
TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 

Z. A. Ragozin. 
MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustav Masson. 
HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. 
MEXICO. Susan Hale. 
PHGENICIA. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 
THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. 
EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 

Now in Press for immediate issue : 

THE STORY OF BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

" RUSSIA. W. R. MoRFiLL. 

" VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith. 

" MODERN FRANCE. Emily Crawford. 

" THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison. 

" CANADA. A. R. Macfarlane. 

" SCOTLAND. James Macintosh. 



New Yp 
27 AND 29 West Tw 



YORX 



iRD St. 



P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



London 
27 King William Street, Strand 






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